A/N: Yay new chapter! Because my son is 9 months old today (and the fact that it's my normal updating day anyway haha) I come bearing gifts in the form of an update. The nickname that gets used later in this chapter is actually one that I use with my son. I really have no idea how or why I started using it but it has just stuck and I love it to pieces. I hope you enjoy!
The remaining month of school after Thanksgiving and before the winter break passes quickly, with everyone stressing over Sectionals (which they totally rocked; especially with the moving version of Nickelback's Never Gonna Be Alone that the boys sang with Puck on lead) and finals. Rachel is glad that the gossip seems to have moved on to something else more shocking (turns out that some of the Cheerios had been sleeping with their history teacher in order to ensure that they passed. No one knows yet if it was under Sue's orders since she's gone touring for her congressional campaign). The couple told their friends in glee that they're expecting a boy and everyone still believes that Puck is the father since neither he nor Rachel is going to say any different.
It's now Hanukkah and the Puckermans and Berrys have decided to combine their family celebration this year in light of their children having a baby together. The adults had finally come to terms with the idea that Puck was going to be the baby's father no matter what they said against the idea; although admittedly they really didn't have much to say against it. The Berry men had quickly been won over by his declaration of love for their daughter during Thanksgiving dinner and Puck's mother just gave in because she knew how stubborn her son could be and she was secretly pleased that he was deciding to stand by Rachel while she was pregnant with a baby that may or may not be his.
Puck has been racking his brain trying to figure out what to give his girlfriend for Hanukkah as well as her birthday since it happens to be during their weeklong celebration. He wants to do something completely amazing and romantic for her but yet still be able to hold on to both his badass rep and man card. So now he finds himself walking the mall during the Christmas rush and he fucking hates it because there are people everywhere and this year's Santa is one creepy looking motherfucker that makes him glad that he's Jewish and never had to go and sit on the lap of a fat man pretending to be someone else.
He has already stopped at a few department stores to look at their perfume selections but he doesn't really think that would be the greatest thing to get her since he already likes the way she smells (like pomegranates and mangos) plus it might be like telling her she stinks or some shit like that. So he backs out of the current department store and heads over to the music store that he spies across the courtyard. Puck briefly thinks about getting her a CD or some sheet music but he's not really sure on what she already has since all of her music is on iTunes and the girl probably already has every piece of Broadway sheet music known to man.
Sighing, the mohawked teen leaves the store and keeps on walking through the mall, trying not to shove too many harried shoppers out of his way in his frustration. Running his hand over his thin strip of hair, Puck stops when he sees a jewelry store sitting right next to the mall movie theater. He knows that jewelry can be a kinda clichéd gift depending on what you give but he figures it's still worth a shot and that he'll check it out.
He slowly walks along the display cases looking at the various rings, necklaces and bracelets that they have for sale. He's not really surprised that the store is rather busy and that none of the salespeople are rushing over to help the teenager with the strange hairstyle. He's just about to leave the store when something in the very last case catches his eye. Puck knows that it will be perfect to give her for Hanukkah and so he catches the eye of one of the female sales associates and gets her to show it to him. Once he sees it up close, he's even more in love with the idea of giving it to Rachel and immediately purchases it before walking over to the movie theater to treat himself to an afternoon matinee.
When the movie is over, Puck suddenly has a great idea as to what to do for Rachel's birthday. So he pulls out his cell phone to call one of his former pool cleaning customers (no not that kind of customer. This one was male and totally legit) and asks him for a favor. He explains his idea to the guy and smiles when he is given the ok. Closing his phone, Puck slides it back into the front pocket of his jeans and whistles merrily as he finally leaves the overcrowded mall, knowing that he is one super kickass boyfriend for what he is going to do.
Rachel's birthday happens to fall on the third night of Hanukkah this year and Puck has already cleared it with his mom and her dads for him to take her out that night. He's never been more grateful for the fact that both of their families aren't extremely traditional when it comes to their faith. They all came together on the first night to light the menorah, recite the blessings and then have a feast but after that night it was just a quick lighting with the blessings done at their own homes. He and Rachel had agreed earlier in the week that they would exchange their presents together on her birthday. He's a little surprised that she's the one that suggested it but then he quickly got over it when she had clapped happily and exclaimed that it was more presents for her.
Rachel is a little nervous about tonight because she knows Noah is taking her out somewhere but he wouldn't tell her where so she has no real clue on how to dress herself and her pregnant belly. She's twenty five weeks along now and getting bigger every day. Rubbing a hand across her baby bump, the petite brunette stands in front of her closet contemplating her choices. She can't decide between jeans and a sweater or a skirt with a sweater. Then realizing what the common item between her two choices is, she quickly grabs out her new sweater dress; it's charcoal gray with silver threading throughout. She pairs it with some sparkly leggings and a pair of black boots that have a low heel.
Rachel glances at the clock and notices that she doesn't have much time before her boyfriend is supposed to be picking her up and so she quickly adds a few curls to her hair and swipes on a coat of lip gloss before heading towards the stairs right as the doorbell rings. She opens the front door to see Noah standing there and she smiles at him.
"Hey, Baby, you look fucking hot," he tells her. "You ready to go?"
She just laughs lightly as she says, "Hello to you too, Noah, and yes I'm ready to go. Just let me grab my things and say goodbye to my dads." Rachel then disappears briefly as she turns into the living room to let her dads know she is leaving and then grabs her jacket before stepping outside and shutting the door behind herself. "So are you going to tell me yet where we're going tonight?"
"Nope, it's a surprise. But I promise you'll love it. Come on, let's get you and Mr. Man into my truck and out of the cold," he says as he grabs her hand and walks with her to the passenger side of his truck.
Rachel looks up at him questioningly. "Mr. Man?"
Puck just opens the door for her and helps her into her seat before walking around to his side and getting in. Once the truck is started and the heat is going he explains, "Yep, I've decided that our son needs some form of a nickname until we decide on his name and that he couldn't have anything lame like Peanut, Pumpkin or Drizzle. He needed something manly and badass for a baby so Mr. Man is what I came up with." He grins at her proudly before he pulls away from her curb and starts driving.
She just giggles at his explanation and tells him, "You're ridiculous. But I love you and I love the nickname. So Mr. Man it is." She then leans over and pecks him on the cheek since he's too busy driving in order to receive a proper kiss.
When they get closer to their final destination, Puck tells her to close her eyes and to not open them until he says so. Rachel just rolls her eyes at him before smiling and doing as he asked. About five minutes later, she feels the truck stop and hears his door open and so she quietly calls out, "Noah?"
He grabs her hand and squeezes it gently, telling her, "I'll be right back, Baby. Keep your eyes closed." He then quickly pecks her lips before disappearing from the truck and shutting the door so that the cold outside won't creep in. When he returns, Rachel can immediately smell the scent of fresh popcorn and her curiosity is piqued. "Open your eyes."
She slowly opens her eyes and looks at her surroundings. At first she thinks that they are in the middle of nowhere, since there appears to be no one else around them in this big field. But then she sees the giant white screen and wonders how she didn't notice it sooner. She then looks at her boyfriend and sees him sitting there grinning at her while holding on to a bucket of popcorn and a soda. "Noah, are we at the drive in?"
"Yep," he says with a popped p.
Her head does a quick back and forth motion over the area again before returning to look at him again. "You didn't break in did you?" she whispers loudly.
Chuckling, he takes her hand and drags her across the seat so that she's tucked underneath his arm as he says, "No, Rachel. I called one of my old pool cleaning customers," he feels her momentarily tense against his body so he quickly reassures her, "No, not that kind of customer. I knew that Frank happened to be the owner of this place since it's his family's old business. I know it's been shut down for years but he's never had the heart to put it up for sale so I asked him if I could use it tonight for a private showing of your favorite movie."
Rachel gasps and looks up at him with wonder in her eyes. "Oh Noah, we're going to watch Funny Girl?" He nods. "But how is that even possible? I highly doubt that he just happened to have a copy of the movie just lying around in some film cans."
"No but he did agree to bringing his video projector from home and setting it up so that I could do this for you," he tells her, before taking a sip of the soda. He can't help but feel like the man when she just beams her megawatt smile at him and then leans up to kiss him before grabbing a handful of popcorn.
He does his best to let her enjoy the movie by trying to not make out with her too much. He finds it's much easier to do whenever she sings along to the songs because even though he doesn't care much for what the songs are about, he loves to listen to his girl sing. Because even with a baby in her belly, taking up some valuable air space, she still sounds amazing. Running his fingers through the silky strands of her hair he kisses the her temple before running his other hand over her belly, hoping that the baby would finally kick hard enough for him to feel. Rachel had been telling him how she could feel the little flutters for the past few weeks and he was actually a little jealous. Quinn never let him touch her when she was pregnant with Beth so he has yet to experience a baby moving in the belly.
When the movie is over, Rachel leans up to kiss him and then pulls back to say, "Thank you so much for this, Noah. I had so much fun. I never thought that I would have my own private movie show. It was incredibly romantic and I love you for it."
Puck smirks because he knows that he is so the man. "Love you too, Babe." He then reaches his hand into his jacket pocket and pulls out a small box and hands it to her saying, "And to continue on with this awesome night, here's your Hanukkah present."
The tiny teenager stares at the box in her hands silently for a long time before looking up at her boyfriend, "Noah?"
"It's not gonna bite you, Rach," he tells her as he opens the box for her. Inside she sees a gold ring that is made up of multiple connecting stars with pink centers and she gasps at how pretty it is. "It's not an engagement ring or any shit like that. It's more like a promise ring; my promise to you that I'm going to stand by your side throughout all of this. I promise to make sure that you're the star that you've always dreamed of. That you'll be the brightest fucking star that ever lived. That you get everything you deserve and that one day I will get you an engagement ring and wedding ring to go with it. Assuming you haven't thrown me out on my ass by then. I love you, Rachel." Puck then pulls the ring from the box and gently slides it onto her finger as she's still just sitting there completely silent and it's honestly starting to freak him the fuck out. "Berry? Are you alive in there?"
Rachel blinks her eyes a few times as she stares at the shiny new ring on her finger and then up at her boyfriend. She can feel the tears pooling at the bottom of her eyes and is powerless to stop them from freefalling down her face. "Oh Noah."
"Well fuck. I didn't mean to make you cry. You don't have to wear it if you don't like it. I just figured you would since stars are kinda your thing and like metaphors or some shit and I know you love the color pink. Here take it off and I'll take it back and we can get you something else," he says as he reaches for her hand to start taking the ring off. But he yanks his hand back when she slaps it away with more force and sting than he thought her capable of. "Shit woman, what the fuck?"
"No! Mine," she shrieks as she cradles both of her hands to her chest to keep the ring away from him. Wiping her tears from her face Rachel says, "I'm sorry I'm crying. It's these stupid hormones. But it's my ring and I love it and you can't have it back. Never ever." Her hands shoot out and grab both sides of his head and drags his lips down to hers to kiss him forcefully, shoving her tongue into his mouth before moaning as one of his hands cups the back of her head while the other caresses her legs.
Puck lets himself sink into the kiss as he runs his tongue over hers, enjoying hearing her moans. The hand on her legs slowly moves up her body to gently squeeze one of her boobs as he trails kisses along her jaw to her ear and then down her neck. Rachel arches her back to press her chest further into his hand and moans loudly when he begins to suck on the juncture of her neck and shoulder. "Fuck, I love how responsive you are, Baby."
"Mmm, Noah, I want you. Take me home," she whispers quietly as she runs her hands over his muscled chest.
He pulls away from her neck to look her in the eyes, "Are you sure?" Normally he wouldn't question it when a girl tells him that she wants him, but this is Rachel and everything is always different for her. Plus he knows that she hasn't been with anyone but him since she got pregnant and all they ever really do is make out, with the exception of that one night that she allowed him to get her off and even that was a few months ago.
She smiles softly at him before speaking, "Yes, Noah. I want to be with you. Please take me home."
A/N: So first off, in the beginning of the chapter I mentioned student/teacher relations (and this was totally written long before this Pelby garbage started happening) and I just wanted to say that I don't condone them at all. Except of course in the land of fantasy because then they can be kinda hot. :P Haha
I also took liberties with her birthday. I know that the wiki page for Rachel says that her birthday is December 18, 1994 and Hanukkah this year starts on December 20th which makes her birthday the 23rd in my story. No real reason why it is that way other than it's what worked out best for me in my head at the time. Speaking of Rachel's (actual) birthday, has anyone noticed that the calculations for her to be a senior are wrong? The age cut off date to start kindergarten in Ohio is September 1st. So you need to either already be 5 or will turn 5 by that day. In order for Rachel to be a senior right now in the canon Glee timeline, she either needs to have started school at the age of 3 (which isn't done) or she skipped a grade somewhere along the way. So they either need to fix her date of birth or somehow magically go back in time to before season 3 started and make her a junior. End mini rant about how Rachel can't be a 16 year old senior.
And the ring that he got her is an actual ring. It can be found here: www . aliexpress . com/product-fm/379151604-2010-Fashion-Candy-colored-interlocking-Star-Ring-Wholesales-Retail-wholesalers . html It's the gold and pink one that is a little farther down the page.