Title: The Key To Our Soul Author: saar_fantasy Pairings: Adam Lambert/Kris Allen, Noah 'Puck' Puckerman/Kurt Hummel (there will probably be mentioned a few more, but these are the main ones)
Rating: PG-13 Warnings: none really Spoilers: none Genre: Humor,Romance, Music, AU, American Idol cross-over/Glee cross-over Word Count:: ~ Disclaimer: As much as I wished I did, I don't own any of them.
Summary: Adam Lambert and Kurt Hummel, both friends; and most importantly, both openly gay; sign up to audition for American Idol in New York. They both hope to make a singing career out of it, neither of them expecting to get so much more...
"Will you stop that?" Kurt scolded Adam as he was plucking at his nail polish, "You're making me nervous."
Adam sighed and carded his hand through his hair, "What if he's not through, Kurt?"
Kurt gave him a smile that he hoped was reassuring, "Kris will get through, don't worry. He's really good, Adam. Really good."
"I know," Adam answered, "I just...He's my friend, you know. I never would have imagined that this roommate thing would end well because I really thought I would end up with some kind of jerk, instead I got Kris. We're very different people, that's for sure, but somehow...It just clicks. You know what I mean?"
Kurt couldn't help but glance over at the mohawked boy who was sitting with Santana and Brittany, laughing with something Santana just said.
"Yes. I know."
"We became friends in such a short amount of time. I don't want to lose that."
Kurt smiled tightly, "Believe me, Adam. I really know what you mean."
Just at that moment, Kris came through the door, face a little flushed and both his arms in the air.
"I made it," he said to Ryan, then he was engulfed into the arms of five people at once; Adam's, Puck's, Kurt's, Santana's and Brittany's.
Then the good news was on a roll.
Matt, Mercedes, Blaine, Kurt and Adam all got through along with some other contestants until there were only four people left.
Rachel Berry, Sunshine Corazon, Jesse St. James and...Noah Puckerman.
Of course they kept the drama in the show of already having 11 girls and 11 boys, and still have two people for each group waiting for their verdict.
It was absolutely nerve wrecking. Especially for Puck.
"I don't know what to think about it," Puck said to Ryan when he asked him how he felt, "I was already on the verge of going home and they called me back. They can't have called me back for nothing, right?"
"You never know," was Ryan's answer.
Which made Puck even more worried then he already was.
If they could just get it over with...No matter what the verdict was.
"Are you nervous?" Puck asked a fidgeting Rachel during a filming break.
"No," Rachel answered, receiving a raised eyebrow from Puck in return she smiled, "Maybe a little bit."
Puck smiled, "You have no reason to be nervous. Those judges would be stupid not to let you through."
Rachel beamed, "Thanks. You look pretty nervous yourself."
Puck shrugged, "I don't know what to expect. They just called me back, but now they keep me as one of the last two guys and the other guy is Jesse. What if they called me back just to dump me again?"
"You're a great entertainer, Noah. That's what they like so much about you."
"Yeah, too bad the show isn't called "American Entertainer". I'm sure I would have won, hands down."
Rachel laughed and shook her head, taking Puck's hand in her's.
"You are also a great singer. You have both the factors while Jesse, although I really like him, only has one." she smiled reassuringly, "You'll get through to the top 24. Don't worry."
Puck gave a small, nervous smile. Jut at the moment that Ryan announced they would get back to filming.
Ryan let the girls go first, leaving Puck and Jesse both anxiouly waiting.
All the people who had made it to the top 24 already were sitting back in the holding room, waiting for the last two contestant to join them.
Their eyes were all glued to the door when they suddenly heard footsteps coming closer.
"And?" Ryan asked when the two girls stepped into the room.
"I made it!" Rachel exclaimed and was soon hugged by her two dads and then the other contestants while Ryan stood back, smiling as always.
Kurt smiled but was still nervous about Puck. Everyone had expected that Rachel would be chosen over Sunshine, but between Puck and Jesse?
Nobody really knew...
"I wouldn't worry about him too much," Kurt turned his head to see Rachel suddenly sitting next to him. "He'll be through to the top 24. I'm sure about it."
Kurt gave a small smile. He knew Puck was good but he still wasn't sure if the judges saw his real potential.
Because Puck was an entertainer, the American public would surely like him. But would the judges give him a chance to show what he could do?
Footsteps were heard and everyone in the holding room were holding their breaths.
Rachel took Kurt's hand in hers and squeezed, Kurt squeezing hers right was sitting on the edge of his seat, Adam's hand resting on his back in a comforting way.
Even Santana looked nervous. They all wanted Puck to get through, but Jesse was a very good singer.
Who would the judges have chosen?
The ok singer with a hell of a lot charisma, or the great singer with the charisma of a plank.
Then both Jesse and Puck appeared in the doorway, their faces unreadable.
"And?" Ryan inquiered, "Come on you guys, don't leave your fellow contestants in this tension."
Puck and Jesse looked at each other before a grin broke out on Puck's face.
"I made it."
The words were barely out of his mouth or both Santana and Kurt raced up to him, engulfing him into their arms.
Then Brittany and Kris took over, soon followed by Adam, Matt, Blaine and the rest of the contestants.
While Puck was getting hugs and congratulations from everyone, his eyes stayed locked onto Kurt's.
They both smiled and Puck gave him a wink before getting tangled into one of Rachel's hugs again, Santana standing next to him, rolling her eyes.
Meanwhile, Kris and Adam were off to find someone of the producers or anyone else who could answer their question.
They wanted to know if they could still be roommates or not. They certainly hoped they could...
Luckily for them, the producers had decided that the contestants who were roommates and both got through to the top 24 could still be roommates.
The other ones would be paired up with someone new.
Kris and Adam were tremendously relieved and went to tell Puck and Kurt, who seemed just as excited about it as they were.
None of them had to be afraid to end up with some narrow minded jerk for sure.
Talking about narrow minded jerks... The scrawny boy who had learned how vicious Santana's tongue could be wasn't going through to the next round.
Santana and Brittany had both stood up and clapped when he told the bad news to Ryan, much to the dismay of the boy and his family, but even they didn't dare to say anything.
Kurt was getting a little nervous under Santana's scrutinizing looks.
It was as if she was trying to read his intentions with Puck straight off his face.
But what were his intentions with Puck? He didn't even know that himself.
He also wondered if Adam knew what his intentions with Kris were because they had been attached to the hip ever since they knew that they had both made it through.
The strange thing was that neither Puck, nor Kris seemed to mind when Kurt or Adam stood just a little closer than they were supposed to, when they hugged them just that little bit tighter, when they laughed with something they said while it wasn't really that funny.
Kurt and Adam were falling for those two boys and they did absolutely nothing to stop them.
The only thing that stopped Kurt and Adam was the fact that Kris and Puck had girlfriends.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for them to still be roommates but neither of them wanted to be separated so they just have to work their way through it.
It couldn't be that though, could it?
They could just be friends with them. Even though there would always be the yearning for something more...
Kurt was sitting alone in his room because Puck was gone into town with Kris, Adam, Santana and Brittany to celebrate .
They had asked Kurt to join them, but he had politely declined, telling them he wanted to call his dad to tell him the good news and then just go to bed.
His dad had congratulated him with pride in his voice, then he gave the phone to Carole who gave a far more enthusiastic respond than his dad, but Kurt was used to that.
He knew his dad was proud of him and that was all that really mattered.
Finn had send his congrats as well, which really pleased Kurt that his step-brother seemed genuinely happy for him.
Puck had told him not to stay up, but Kurt just couldn't get to sleep.
He hoped Puck wouldn't be too drunk so they could talk about his little secret, because he really wanted to know.
It was 3 am when Puck finally entered the room. Kurt had fallen asleep after all but woke up when he heard the door open and heard people whispering.
It was probably Puck, Kris and Adam saying goodnight to each other. Kurt squinted against the light from the hallway and watched Puck stumble inside.
He didn't put the light on so he stumbled against a chair and cursed silently. He fumbled around a little until Kurt took pitty on him and turned on the little light on the nightstand next to his bed.
"Thanks", Puck muttered, flashing Kurt a smile before dropping himself on his bed, his face buried into his pillow.
It was silent for a while and Kurt thought Puck had fallen asleep until he heard him groan softly.
"Noah?"
"Hmm?"
"How drunk are you?"
Puck chuckled at Kurt's bluntness, "Apparently not drunk enough because I'm still answering you."
Kurt rolled his eyes but smiled, scooting a little closer to the edge of his bed. For what reason? He didn't really know.
It just made him feel like he was a little closer to Puck and that was necessary for what he was about to ask.
"What are you hiding from us?"
Well, that came out nice...
"Huh?" Puck asked, lifting his head up a little and blinking at Kurt, "What do you mean? I'm not hiding anything from you guys."
"Yes, you do," Kurt replied, he wasn't going to let this go so easily, "You made it clear that Kris knows something about you that we don't. Well, you made me really curious..."
Silence fell again and Kurt was starting to feel uncomfortable.
Maybe he shouldn't have asked...At least not like this.
He heard a sigh coming from the other bed, then the rustling of sheets as he saw Puck sitting up and fumbling into his pocket to take out his wallet.
Then he stood up and started walking over to Kurt's bed, sitting down and taking a picture out of his wallet, showing it to Kurt.
On the picture was a little girl, probably about a year or 4, 5 as far as Kurt could tell, with blond curly hair and, Kurt noticed, Puck's dopey smile.
"She's beautiful," Kurt said softly, then he looked at Puck questioningly, "Who is she?"
"She's my daughter."
Kurt couldn't hold back the gasp and he stared back at the picture, then back at Puck.
"Your daughter..."
Puck nodded and swallowed slightly, his thumb gently stroking over the girl in the picture's face.
"Me and her mother gave her away when she was born. We were too young to take care of a baby. I wanted to keep her, wanted to try to be a good father, but Quinn, the mother of my daughter, didn't want to hear about it." he wiped at his eyes, wiping away the few tears that had escapedwhile he was talking, "I kept in contact with her new mother though. I get pictures and I'm allowed to send her gifts for her birthday and stuff, but I haven't seen her, haven't been able to hold her in my arms since the day she's been born."
Kurt honestly didn't know what to say. Instead he cautiously slipped his hand into Puck's, smiling a little when he didn't pull away but even entwined their fingers together.
"One of the reasons, probably the major one, why I'm not allowed to see her is that I was such a loser back then...I mean, I did drugs in cookies that we were selling in a bake sale at school, I...I fucked most of the cheerleaders at school and when I did my pool cleaning job, let's just say I was inside something else more than inside a pool."
Kurt raised his eyebrows at that, but he didn't want to judge Puck on something that he's done in the past.
This was now and the Puck that he knew now was nothing like that anymore, he could just tell.
Puck looked so uncomfortable that Kurt squeezed his hand, coaxing him to look at him.
"You've learned from your mistakes, didn't you?"
"Of course I did," Puck replied softly, "I wouldn't be here if I hadn't."
Kurt smiled and Puck couldn't help but smile back at him.
"Thank you for telling me this."
Puck shook his head and shifted a little so he could wind his arms around Kurt.
"Thank you for not judging me on my past."
Kurt leaned forward and buried his face in Puck's shoulder while Puck tightened his arms around him.
They both pulled away with a silly grin on their faces, Kurt staring at the picture again.
"What's her name?"
"Beth," Puck answered.
"That's a beautiful name for a beautiful girl."
Puck smiled and nodded, staring down at the picture as well.
"I just want to show Shelby, that's the woman who adopted Beth, that I'm not that same punk I was back then anymore. I want to get a chance to see my daughter again."
Kurt felt tears well up in his eyes by the sincerity and raw emotion in Puck's voice.
"You will," he said softly, but firmly, "You will get that chance for sure."
Puck smiled, reaching out his hand to gently wipe away a tear on Kurt's cheek with his thumb, then leaned forward to press a kiss against his forehead.
"Let's get some sleep, shall we?"
Kurt nodded, hugging Puck one more time before crawling under his blankets, his eyes still staring up at his friend.
"Goodnight, Noah."
Puck gently traced a knuckle against the sight of Kurt's face, revelling the softness of his skin.
He heard Kurt sigh and leaned forward again, placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.
" 'Night Kurt."
Then he walked over to his own bed and buried himself under his covers.
A little while later, both boys fell asleep with a soft smile on their faces, not knowing that on the other side of the hallway, their two friends were doing exactly the same.