A/N: I'm baaack! With a lot of good news and updates. (Warning this is long)
1) I have finished both Liberty & Freedom! All I have left is to edit the final chapters and post them. I will be doing that one chapter a day, for each story.
2) While I failed to update these stories, I wrote a Kurtofsky one-shot. If you haven't read it, and are interested, it's called On Bended Knee (look on my profile page) and is a fluffy, cheesy, PG story involving rings.
3) I saw in a single article (I hope it was accurate) that Glee starts September 20. I have created a count down clock for the event at my other journal. Here is the direct link: variablenature. blogspot. com/2011/07/ countdown-to-glee-s3-premiere. html It goes to Sept. 20, 8:00 EST

And before you go to the story... This update is dedicated to the reviewers/commenters who I replied to with a "I hope to get the next chapter out soon/this weekend" or something like that. Thank you all for not PMing me in anger saying that I lied.

Now, onto the story!

Freedom

Chapter 13 –

Surprisingly, Kurt and Puck were the first to lunch. Despite Puck's little fit he did meet Kurt to walk with him to lunch. Sitting down with their food, Kurt sat close and smiled at his boyfriend.

"What?" asked Puck, mouth already full with food.

Kurt rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored the bad manners. "I still can't believe that you told my dad about us, without me there."

"I asked him if I could date you," pointed out Puck, swallowing. "There's a big difference between that and saying 'by the way I've been mackin' on your son for the past few weeks.'"

Kurt scoffed. "As if I would ever tell him that. I had just been planning on saying that we had decided to start dating Friday night."

"And then he would have blown up about how you skipped family dinner night for a first date with me. Looking back on this, I think what I did was the only way to get a good outcome."

"Well, he does like you, Puck. He even said that you could call him Burt."

"Despite the fact that I've been calling him Burt since he married Finn's mom and I started hangin' out at your place. Babe, he still likes talking about his guns way too much for me to be able to relax around him."

"You seemed to do fine last night… eventually. Besides, you love talking about your guns too. Why take away his happiness over something like that?"

"My guns and his guns are two completely different things," cried Puck.

"Are you two already arguing over celebrity crushes?" asked Mercedes, sitting next to Kurt. "Cause I don't know who you're talkin' about, but Puck's guns ain't got nothin' on Michael Clarke Duncan."

Puck groaned and dropped his head to the table. "That is a low blow, Jones. I can only dream about guns like his."

"Well get over it," said Kurt, "They'd look abnormal on you. I like muscles created on the job, or sports in your case. And Mercedes, we were talking about my dads guns."

"Woah, boy, that is all kinds of creepy," said Mercedes, scooting away.

"No," huffed Kurt, "The kinds with bullets. I was just joking around with Puck about how they both like to talk about their guns."

"Oh, well," Mercedes shrugged, "Okay then. But Michael Duncan still beats Puck."

Puck groaned and Kurt rubbed his back. The others started to show up and every conversation was either about the new couple – though having all known about it since Friday night there was less to talk about – or about Dave's slushy on Azimio that morning. As the table grew more crowded Kurt found himself pulled closer and closer to Puck. He wasn't surprised by it, but the possessiveness was a little unexpected, at least along the lines of Puck being possessive over Kurt.

About the same time that everyone started wondering where Dave was, he walked up to the table, a huge grin on his face, obviously heading to his usual spot. His progress however was halted when Tina pulled him into the seat next to him.

"Oh my God, Dave," she said, "I still can't believe you slushied Azimio. What did he do?"

Kurt watched in interest as Dave just stared, shocked by Tina's behaviour. Kurt was used to it, seeing the girl come out of her shell a bit more when there was gossip to be had.

Eventually Dave answered with a shrug. "He wanted me to slushy Puck so I could be his friend again. I didn't want to do either and I told him so."

"Why would you slushying me put you back in good graces with Az?" asked Puck.

Dave looked over at both Kurt and Puck, obviously taking in their close positions. "Really?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.

"What?" asked Puck, honestly confused.

Dave sighed. "You honestly thought you'd be able to come to school today, hanging onto Kurt like it was some chick flick where no one else seems to notice or care that you're practically making out, and not be slushied?"

Before Dave was finished speaking Kurt was trying to detach himself from Puck. He had no idea how obvious they had been, nor that he was practically in Puck's lap. Dave was right, they were acting like they were in a chick flick.

Puck looked thoughtful, completely uncaring about their appearance, but not weakening his hold on Kurt. "Well, technically I wasn't," he said. "You stopped it."

"And threatened revenge for future offences," added Kurt, giving up his struggle to escape Puck. Honestly, he liked being able to sit this close to a guy that wasn't his father.

"Yeah," chimed in Santana, "I don't get why we haven't started slushying the jocks before. If we started last year we could have been on top."

"But then we would have sunk to their level," pointed out Kurt.

"But most of them are taller than us," said Brittany, head tilted in confusion, "Wouldn't we want to get to their level?"

The entire table stared before Santana rubbed Brittany's back. "I'll explain later, honey."

"You know," said Artie, changing the direction of conversation, "I know Dave isn't bullying anymore, but what about the other jocks?"

"Yeah," said Mercedes, "I haven't been slushied once this year."

Kurt joined in everyone as they stared at Dave, expecting for some unknown reason that he would have the answer to their questions. Though, Kurt had more of an inkling and understanding.

Sighing, Dave explained, "I decided to stop bullying before school started."

Puck and Kurt both frowned at that knowing full well what Dave had promised. Puck spoke before Dave could continue. "But you didn't promise that to Kurt until the second week of school."

Kurt could feel all eyes turn to him. This was not good. Unsurprisingly, Finn spoke first. "Dude, we can take care of ourselves. And why would you ask Dave to stop bullying us?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "I don't think you can't all take care of yourselves. I just thought that it would be nice for us to have a bully-free year. Besides, it needed to be something big if he wanted to borrow my bike for a day."

Once again, all eyes turned back to Dave. "It was only for an afternoon," he corrected, "And I have a license, so I doubt he'll extend the same courtesy to any of you."

"And I won't let him use my bike again unless it's an absolute emergency," added Kurt, though no one really seemed to care.

"Like I said," continued Dave, "I had already sworn off bullying, but just because I stopped didn't mean you would have a bully-free year. So while Kurt thought I was promising to stop myself, I was really promising to try and get the other jocks to back off. It's no big deal."

"How on earth have you managed?" asked Rachel, and Kurt reluctantly agreed that she asked a very good question.

"The jocks and all of you have pretty obvious routines and hangouts," Dave explained. "I was able to figure out where you might be and delayed the jocks from getting to you. And there have been some underclassmen that I may or may not have scared into going the opposite direction of a slushy-armed jock."

"You mean you've been protecting other students not in glee?" asked Kurt, not bothering to hide the pride in his voice. He held back the grin though when Puck tensed a little in jealousy and kissed the side of his neck gently, as if to remind him that he was taken.

Rolling his eyes, Kurt let himself give in and lean back onto Puck a bit more, smiling happily.

"It's no big deal," said Dave, obviously uncomfortable with all the attention. "Can we just move on?"

"Fine," said Mercedes, "What was with that big smile you had on when you walked in? You usually only have on a smile like that on Fridays."

Kurt smiled encouragingly at Dave. They were all his friends now, he could trust them with the truth. Finally, after drinking half his water Dave spoke up. "A girl tried to give me her number, and I finally got to say… that I'm taken." The last part came out in a whisper, but everyone still heard it and Kurt found himself smiling in approval.

"You have a girlfriend?" This came from the half of the table that wasn't shocked into silence, meaning all of the loudest members, minus Kurt.

Kurt looked around with Dave, wondering if others in the cafeteria had noticed the outburst.

"Would you keep it down?" hissed Dave, "It's not something I'd like to advertise to the entire school. Besides, it's no big deal. I'm in high school, I can have a significant other if I want to."

"Does she go to McKinley?" asked Mercedes, hungry for some kind of gossip.

"No," said Dave. She opened her mouth to ask another question and he answered before she spoke, "OSU."

"Dude, you're dating a college chick?" asked Puck. "Sweet. I'll bet she's all kinds of experienced."

"Your soon to be ex is sitting right next to you if you don't stop talking right now," mumbled Kurt, suddenly understanding how Puck had felt earlier.

Dave grinned, "Very experienced. Why do you think I'm so happy on Fridays?"

Kurt raised an eyebrow, surprised, not only by the amount of information Dave was sharing, but that he seemed to have accepted himself enough to go further than making out. "Really? You've gone…?" he waved a hand in place of finishing that sentence.

Dave raised his own surprised eyebrow. "You lookin' for suggestions, Kurt?"

Kurt blushed and took a sip of his water. "Just curious," he mumbled.

"No, we haven't," answered Dave, "But the phone conversations have gotten pretty hot."

Kurt started to choke on his water, suddenly imagining Dave having phone sex right after lunch. He chose to ignore how the entire table laughed at his expense.

As he recovered, with no help from Puck who made a suggestive comment in his ear, he noticed how Dave managed to change the subject and conversations continued as if it was any other day, despite the fact that Puck and Kurt were now dating. Kurt loved his friends.

TBC...

There are pictures of Michael Duncan at the LJ post of this: amelias-nature. livejournal. com/15157. html

Prompt Poll: amelias-nature. livejournal. com/11278. html