Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Glee universe.

Thank you so much for your continued interest. Last night's episode was AMAZING and just confirms that the sweetness is there! Sorry if this chapter's a little off, it was really difficult to write and school is just starting to kick my butt. Hopefully I can get 5 finished and up by this weekend, but I'm not promising anything.

Please Review!

The next morning started with a groan. Puck whacked the 'Snooze' button on his alarm clock and shoved his head under his pillow. A soft knock on the bedroom door elicited an irritated "What?"

"Don't you talk to me like that," his mom admonished, sticking her head in the room. "You asked me to make sure you got up early this morning. Don't get upset because I'm doing you a favor."

He groaned again. "I know. Sorry," he grumbled, head still buried under his pillow. She just laughed and shut the door.

Tossing the pillow aside, he sat up and rubbed his eyes having temporarily forgotten about yesterday's events. He winced as he accidentally pressed hard on his left eye. That little fist had sure packed a lot of force. With a smirk, he thought about how much her hand would hurt. He bet she would have a few marks, too, considering that was probably the only punch she had ever thrown. Bruises nothing special to him.

He pushed himself to his feet and stumbled down the hall to the bathroom, studiously ignoring the clock that told him it was 6:00 in the morning. Catching sight of himself in the mirror, he scowled. His eye was ringed with dark purple. He looked like he had been beat down by a monster. It really was all about where one got hit rather than how hard the punch was. Today was going to suck.

As he expected his mother gasped as he entered the kitchen half an hour later. "Noah! What happened?" Her eyes flickered toward the ceiling. The kitchen was directly under the master bedroom of the house.

He clenched his teeth. "I pissed off a chick."

"Don't talk about women that way," she said automatically, then realized what he had said. "Excuse me? A girl did this?"

"Yes," he huffed. He didn't have to save face in front of his mom. She knew him better than that. He dropped into a chair at the table and rubbed his head. "She's kinda crazy. It's not funny."

His mom shook her head, but her smile didn't disappear as she set a plate down in front of him loaded with food. "Of course it's not."

"Damn straight it's not," his father rumbled as he walked through the door.

Puck's jaw tightened as he saw the light leave his mother's face. He practically felt the knots form in his back as the man crossed the room and grabbed the orange juice from the refrigerator. He stood when his dad reached for the vodka. "I think I'm gonna head to school and try to fit in a workout before class." His mother handed him a Tupperware container into which he dumped his plate of food. "Do you need a ride to work?" he asked her.

"No. I'll be fine, Noah," she kissed him on the cheek. "You have a good day at school. I'll see you at dinner."

He sealed the container with the lid and threw it in his backpack. "Bye."

"Noah," his father said.

Puck turned and looked at him. "What?"

"I didn't raise a pussy."

Puck's gut twisted. You didn't raise anything, he thought, but only nodded to his dad. His mother bit her lip. He gave her a small, sad smile and left.

It wasn't until he was dressed and warming up for his workout when his rage burst to the surface. He practically sprinted through his entire run and he worked with the heaviest weights he could handle, pushing his muscles far beyond their limits. He was shaking from exhaustion by the time he finished and it took all of his determination to stay awake in the shower.

In a haze, he dried off and threw on his clothes twenty minutes before class was scheduled to start. Vaguely, he remembered wanting to find Rachel, to talk to her and smooth things over prior to seeing her with everyone else around. Slinging his backpack over one shoulder, he set off for the practice room.

He pulled open the door to find her, not singing as he expected, but sitting at the table with books spread out in front of her. Her dark hair was swept to one side, exposing her neck, and she had the end of her pen between her teeth. He stepped inside, accidentally making the door squeak and she looked up sharply. He didn't like the way her face shifted from surprise to caution at the sight of him.

"Good morning," she said, shuffling her papers together and closing her books.

"Hey," he said.

She barely glanced at him as she gathered it all together and started loading up her bag. "The room is yours," she told him and brushed by him on her way out.

He moved fast, catching her arm and pulling her to a halt. "Rachel, wait. I, uh, wanted to talk to you…about yesterday."

The force of his tug caused her to overbalance and she fell back against him. He curled his other hand around her hip to keep her upright. She sputtered and pushed away from him as soon as she was steady. "What about yesterday?" She met his gaze for the first time and her face fell. "Oh. I am very sorry about your eye. I didn't think about what would happen after..." She trailed off.

"How's your hand?" he asked, grabbing it and holding it up to inspect her knuckles. As he had thought they were swollen and slightly discolored. He let his fingertips slide gently along the dips between her knuckles. "Looks like it hurts."

"I, uh, yeah," she managed. The tension in her body practically vibrated in the air around them.

Puck sighed and dropped her hand. "Would you relax? I'm not going to hurt you."

Rachel's mouth pressed into a thin line. "Physical pain isn't the only way to hurt someone. Forgive me if I don't believe that two weeks in Glee has changed your feelings toward me. All I want is peace." She adjusted her bag and took a small step back. "And prior to yesterday, I thought we had achieved it."

He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he said.

She blinked at him, her dark eyes wide and startled. "What?"

"Jesus, Berry." It was hard enough saying it once, but the bemused expression on her face was totally worth it. So, he repeated, "I'm sorry."

Her mouth opened, her lips moving to form the beginning of the inevitable monologue, puckering again like she was expecting a kiss, and he just lost it. Bringing his hands up to cup her face, he dipped his head and shut her up with his mouth.

She squeaked in surprise and tried to break the kiss, but he refused to let her go. She didn't close her mouth fast enough and he took advantage, sweeping his tongue inside and tasting her briefly before releasing her. She tasted like vanilla. "Truce, okay?"

Rachel's hand flew up to her mouth and she stared at him with an oddly unreadable expression on her face. When he raised his eyebrows as if waiting for a response, she nodded frantically.

"Good," he said and felt some satisfaction at leaving her behind watching him split. He paused right outside the door where she couldn't see him and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He was NOT the kind of guy to get worked up over a girl, especially not one whom he had tortured for the entirety of their acquaintance. He supposed he could blame it on his state of exhaustion, but he knew better than that. She had gotten under his skin despite his best efforts to keep her out. Damn her and her soft touch.

Licking his lips, he knew that her taste would haunt him the rest of the day.

Rachel stayed frozen until the bell rang, her mind completely blank for the first time in her considerably sharp memory.

Noah Puckerman had kissed her.

Noah. Puckerman.

She let out a small shriek and jumped as the school bell rang, racing through the halls to her first class. She made it just in time and dropped into her seat completely out of breath.

Jacob Israel gave her a creepy smile. "Thinking about me again?"

She was sure he had bribed the registrar to place them in classes together and it usually made her skin crawl, but she barely registered his presence today. All of her senses were completely focused on the interaction she had just experienced with the young man who was previously the bane of her high school existence. If she closed her eyes she could still feel his hand on her hip and smell the soap from his skin. Heat flared in her cheeks as she remembered the roughness of his fingertips along her jaw and the confident stroke of his tongue against her own. And her heart fluttered even faster as she replayed his words, "I'm sorry."

Those were definitely the last words she had ever expected to pass his lips and she was surprised at how they affected her. Never had she thought that he would come to her of his own volition and apologize. She didn't know exactly what he was apologizing for, but just to hear that phrase…

Absentmindedly, she pulled out her notebooks and pens and passed the class time taking notes as she normally would (a little slower than usual since she had punched him with her right hand), but if asked what she had written, she would have drawn a complete blank. She didn't notice the odd looks from the teacher or from the students around her when she didn't raise her hand to answer every question. At the end of class, she packed up her things and left the classroom without a word to anyone. Jacob trailed after her assailing her with his usual crude affirmations of his attraction to her, but she couldn't even hear him.

She swung by her locker to switch her books and he followed her, leaving her alone only when she elbowed him in the sternum for being too close. He huffed and muttered something about "getting her one day," but she continued to ignore him.

Staring at the inside of her locker, she tried to make sense of what had happened. There was no possible reason for Puck to have kissed her. And there was no reason in the world that she should be so flustered by that kiss, except that it was completely unexpected…and sweet…and arousing…and wrong! Shaking herself out of the fog in which Puck's actions had placed her, Rachel changed out her books and slammed her locker shut. She smiled at Finn and Quinn, the familiar ache starting in her chest. She braced herself for the usual torrent of heartache, but the ache didn't grow to its usual monumental proportions.

"You okay, Rachel?" Finn asked, his sweet, simple face scrunching in concern. Quinn rolled her eyes and pushed away from him, but he remained focused on Rachel.

Rachel glanced apprehensively at Quinn. "Uh, yeah. I was just wondering…" She bit her lip, unsure if it was wise to question Finn about his best friend. "Is everything all right with Puck?" She hurried to qualify the question as Finn's face grew suspicious. "He seems really off and I wouldn't want whatever is going on to get so bad that it affects our performance at Sectionals. Of course, I hope he's okay just because he's a person and all, but we really need to be on top of our game and I wanted to check." She wanted to bang her head on her locker as she heard herself continue to ramble.

Finn shrugged. "He's got some shit going on at home, but…" An angry look came over his face. "Did he do something to you?"

Her cheeks flushed as she felt the pressure of his mouth on hers again. "Not really. I mean, he did mess up my hand, but that was kind of my fault, too," she admitted.

"Yeah? Let me see," he said, holding out his hand.

Tentatively, Rachel placed her bruised hand in Finn's and again waited for the rush of emotion she usually felt at his touch. And again, it felt nice, but there was powerful about it. His hand practically enveloped hers. She winced as he pressed gently on her knuckles.

He grinned. "You got him good. You should probably ice that when you get home. It might not do much, but it might make some swelling go down."

She sighed and nodded. "I should have done that yesterday. I didn't think about it." Carefully, she withdrew her hand and swung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you at Glee later?"

"I'll be there," he confirmed, looking to the side to see Quinn stalking off down the hallway. "Hey, wait!"

Rachel held her injured hand against her chest, watching them walk away. Quinn punched Finn in the arm, but seemed to calm down when he slipped that arm around her waist. She leaned her head against his shoulder as he leaned down to say something in her ear.

"Disgusting, aren't they?" Kurt said at Rachel's shoulder.

Rachel hmm'ed in agreement. "But wouldn't it be nice to have someone of your own?"

He smiled a little sadly. "Absolutely. Come on. We've got class."

It wasn't until lunch that Rachel saw Puck again. She entered the cafeteria, automatically scanning for an empty table when Jacob popped into her field of vision again. She shuddered at his leer and tried to push past him, but he refused to get out of her way.

"Move," she snapped. "I'd like to eat lunch in peace, please."

"Forget lunch. I'll give you something better to nibble on," he said, pulling his shoulders back and posturing like he had a body of which to be proud.

She barely managed to keep from throwing up and opened her mouth to tell him off when an arm draped over her shoulders and her stomach flipped over.

"Beat it, freak. She's got something better to do than listen to your pathetic attempts to get in her pants."

Jacob's face turned an odd shade of purple and he hurried away, looking back over his shoulder with a vicious expression. He reminded her of that odd little creature in The Lord of the Rings movies. Ugh.

Rachel shrugged off Puck's arm and stepped away from him. "I can take care of myself, thank you," she said, glaring up at him with all the venom she could muster, which wasn't very much because she was relieved at being freed from Jacob's presence.

"Maybe, but I bet it'll be a while before he tries that again. I thought that would be a plus for you." Puck shrugged.

She had to admit that it was pleasant to have someone else scare the cretin away and she was too stunned that it was Puck to be afraid of him. Not wanting to press her luck, but eager to try being nice to him, she blurted, "Would you care to eat lunch with me?" She braced herself for his inevitable rejection, probably complete with insults about how far beneath him she was on the social scale, and was totally surprised when he said,

"Sure."

She did a small victory dance in her head, but quickly squashed it because she was not supposed to care if he wanted to eat lunch with her. It was because they were having an interaction that didn't include rushing to the bathroom to clean herself up before the corn syrup stained her shirt permanently. "Okay. Um, do you see an empty table?"

He scanned the cafeteria and nodded. "Yeah, there's one over there," he said, pointing to the opposite side of the room. "Come on." And he walked with her through the whole lunch room with his hand at the small of her back to guide her.