Finn pulled the darts out of the board and handed them over to Puck. "So where were you last night?"

"What makes you think I was anywhere? Ow - fuck." Puck picked a dart out of his finger and sucked on the bleeding tip.

Finn grinned and shook his head. "You're so transparent when you're dating somebody. First, your mom told me you were out when I called. And two, since when do you stab yourself with darts? Not since, like, middle school?"

Puck knew it was true, but it was hard to take from Finn, whose powers of observation were not the keenest. "I have early class, so I stayed over in Columbus. And I'm working on less than four hours of sleep, and I'm still going to kick your ass, Hudson. Come on, three more."

Puck's standing lunch with Finn had started after Finn's second attempt at college had put the two of them back into the same math class at OSU Lima. It was a foregone conclusion that Puck was better at math than Finn, so he'd ended up helping him with his homework at Fat Jack's, and that'd turned into lunch and darts after class three times a week. It had been easy to keep going after the class was over.

"So come on," Finn pressed. He was going to be persistent.

Bravado and half-truths hadn't worked, so Puck tried misdirection. "You wanna go see that new Scream movie this weekend? They're doing a midnight show on Friday."

It occurred to him, as he said it, that he actually had somebody to invite to the movies, maybe - somebody who might even like a horror movie and who might put out at the end of the night, that was, not a somebody who was practically his sibling. Not a somebody who was currently giving him the most curious look.

"Why are you dodging this question? It's not a person I know, is it?"

Puck felt the sweat on the back of his neck, but he ignored it. Stupid broken air conditioning. "Finn, dude, are you gonna play darts or am I gonna win by forfeit? Pretty sure - "

Finn leaned back against the table and picked up his beer. "I do know her, huh? It's not that girl from rock climbing?"

"Pretty sure she plays for the other team, man," he said dully. Okay. Damage control. He could claim a headache and bug out early. He could start insulting Finn and get him hurt enough that he shut up. He could -

Fuck it.

"It's a guy," he said.

"No, she totally had boobs," Finn insisted. "And who knows, maybe she likes guys and girls. I kind of think she was hot for you. What was her name?"

"No, Finn - " He put out a hand to restrain Finn's dart throw and made him meet Puck's eyes. He put on his best serious face, not that he used it all that often. He hoped Finn didn't confuse it with his pissed face. "Me. It's a guy."

Now Finn was really confused. "I know you're a guy, dude. I've seen your boyparts, right?"

"Finn," Puck snapped. Maybe it was going to end up being his pissed face after all. He took a deep breath. "Look, you were asking what I was doing last night, and I'm telling you, I was with a guy."

"Okay." Finn wrinkled his eyebrows and fell silent, his stance unconsciously leaning over the toe line as he got ready to throw. The first two hit the double ring. The last bounced off the wall.

"You were with a guy?" Finn said, entirely too loudly.

Puck rolled his eyes. Finn Hudson, meet subtle. The blind date from hell. He put a hand on Finn's shoulder and steered him back to the table. "Okay, so, I'd kind of like to come back to Fat Jack's sometime, so let's not scare the locals too much, all right?"

Finn was clearly trying hard to grasp this. He had that comical quizzical thing going on, like he was a dog and there was a treat on his nose - he could smell it, but he couldn't see it. "But, wait - since when do you like guys? I mean, your track record with girls for the past couple years isn't so good, but... you're not just giving it a try because of that, are you?"

"No, Finn." He sighed, running a hand over his head, and leaned in across the table. Finn leaned in, too, converging on the beer pitcher. "I like guys. I always have. The last six dates I had were with guys, but none of them were worth talking about with my best friend, so you haven't missed anything. But this one - " He stopped, finding something completely fascinating to examine on the table in front of them.

"Dude," said Finn, and he sounded kind of hurt. "You've always liked guys and I didn't know this about you? What the hell? Since when do we keep these things from each other?"

"I don't know, Hudson, since I was in freaking middle school? And can you really tell me you wanted to hear it, seriously? I mean, Kurt said five words about his adventures dating after Blaine and you were all dude, TMI." He stared furiously at the table, avoiding Finn's accusing eyes.

"You didn't think I wanted to hear it? You're my best friend." That didn't sound good. Finn was working himself into a full scale hissy. He'd better man up.

"Okay, you're right. I was stupid, I should have told you, and I'm sorry, okay?" He stabbed at the wood grain under the polyurethane on the table with a frustrated coffee stirrer. "Fuck."

Finn watched him for another couple tense minutes before he sighed and leaned back in his chair. "After everything with Santana, I guess... I thought you would have trusted me better than that. Don't you?"

"Hey, I'm telling you now, aren't I? Pretty much the only other person who knows is Sarah, and she's practically me eight years younger with tits, so." He shrugged. "Here's me, trusting you. Yeah, I like dick. You gonna bail?"

"I - no." Finn touched his hand. "No. I'm your friend, okay?"

He dropped that "best" modifier pretty damn quickly, thought Puck's obnoxious self esteem, but he tried not to dwell on it. "Okay. Can we get back to the beer and the pizza and the darts, because I think I'm about to overload on fucking feelings here."

"Whatever, dude." Finn was grinning now, and that was a good sign. Puck rolled his shoulders and topped off his glass. "But you still like girls, right? I mean, I didn't dream that part or anything?"

"Yeah, Finn, I still like girls."

Finn was really thinking now. "So that kind of opens up a whole new group of possible dates, huh?"

He took a long drink. "Yeah. My choices are infinite. Assuming the sample set of all possible partners actually likes guys. Or likes me."

"Who wouldn't?" Finn's face lit up. "Hey, you could date Kurt now!"

"Uh, no. I couldn't. You're already like my fucking brother. I don't need to date yours." Puck decided to take the matter into his own hands and pushed his chair back, swiping the darts off the table. He wondered if Dave liked darts at all.

"So... I'm never going to guess who it is now. Too many options. You're just going to have to tell me about him." Finn was waiting patiently. Puck could feel his expectant eyes on his back as he lined up to throw.

"Dude, I don't know if I really -"

"Hey, nothing's changed here, except you're still dodging the question. You like this... guy?"

He got the first one in the wedge, and tried to line up the second one to fall inside it too, but it hit the board. "Yeah, maybe," he allowed. He kind of saved my life once. And I've been having dreams about him since we were twelve. And the reality is a hell of a lot hotter than the fantasy, but whatever.

"You're not going to tell me about him, are you?" Finn sounded sad again. It made Puck feel like crap in a whole new way. He squinted at the board and threw.

"Dude, bull's eye!" Finn cried, and came over to do the high-five. Then he hugged Puck so tight his ribs creaked.

"Take it easy," he said weakly, but Finn was way too wrapped up in his emotional moment.

"I'm sorry you didn't think you could say anything." Finn pulled back and held his shoulders, like he was going to shake him, but instead, he said, "You can tell me anything, man."

"Really." He raised an eyebrow at him. "You really wanna know?"

"Yeah, seriously," Finn enthused. "I want to be, you know, there for you."

"Oh, so we're living out that episode of Friends," he muttered, plucking the darts from the board and passing them to Finn. "I didn't realize."

They shot two more rounds in silence before Puck said, "It's somebody you know. Knew." And he drew on your face with permanent marker.

"All right." Now Finn sounded a little nervous, but who the fuck could blame him? "And he's a good guy?"

"You mean as opposed to, like, the Joker or the Riddler?" Finn actually laughed at that one. "Yeah. He's fine."

"Okay," Finn said, and shrugged. "I guess that's all that matters, huh?"

Puck was kind of impressed with himself, because he hadn't freaked out or thrown up or lost his head in any way, but he was a hell of a lot more impressed with Finn. He tried to think of a way to tell him this without sounding like a complete douche, but in the end, he just paid for his lunch.

"Uh, thanks," said Finn, because he made about as much money at the garage as Puck did at the dojo, and neither one had a ton to spare. He glanced over Puck's shoulder, then back at him with an anxious grimace. "That doesn't mean this is, like, a date or something?"

"Finn," said Puck, gritting his teeth, "how about you never ask me that question again, okay?"


Kurt usually called Dave after rehearsal was over, before he headed home for dinner. That was around ten o'clock. It wasn't every week, but he could count on hearing from him pretty regularly. Dave wasn't exactly sure what he was going to tell Kurt when he asked his usual what's new with you? this week. It was a toss-up between a believable lie, like nothing, or a creatively framed metaphor, like more than you can possibly imagine. Either way, Kurt wouldn't pry. He wasn't that kind of person.

Dave was prepping for Thursday's class when he called. "David," he said.

"Hey, Kurt! What's up?" Dave tried to make it sound like a genuine question. Maybe if he got him talking about himself right off the bat, he could avoid the issue.

"Well, as you know, I'm not one to gossip," said Kurt, which was hilarious, but Dave managed to restrain his snort. "But a reliable source has passed on some information, and perhaps you'd be so kind as to confirm or deny it?"

"Um." Puck was pretty much the only subject he could think about that it made sense for Kurt to ask him about, but how would Kurt even know that? "What is it about that makes you think I know?"

"Well, in the vast pool of gay men that McKinley high has spawned, you and I are notable for swimming... on the surface. With at least arms and legs kicking above the water. Let's say I discovered another swimmer in this pool who might be, er, surfacing? I'd think telling you would fall into the category of a... a lifesaving measure, rather than an insensitive exposure of secrets. Don't you think?"

Did he? He had to be talking about Puck. But if Kurt had just found out about Puck now, it probably meant Finn just found out, because where else would he have heard? That had some implications that made Dave want to be very careful. "Uh...are you sure this guy would feel the same way about that?"

"My sources are inconclusive in that regard. But... if this someone were a person with whom you'd had a... history, perhaps it might be significant?"

That really sounded like Kurt knew more than he'd let on. "I...if I did, hypothetically, wouldn't I already know about...whatever this is?"

"Possibly," Kurt allowed. "I don't want to make any assumptions." Kurt sounded like he was practically dying to do exactly that. "But this might be a convenient time for you to share anything you might have been sitting on... David."

"Because you never assume. Right. Look, Kurt, you know as well as I do that some secrets belong to more than one person. I really don't know if I have the right to tell you."

"So you do know something." Kurt sounded entirely too satisfied with himself.

Damn. Kurt was too smart for him about things like this. Like talking.

"Kurt, I know lots and lots of things. I'm sure you do too. So either ask me what you want to ask, and maybe I'll answer and maybe not, or you can find something else to talk about, or you can hang up. Your choice."

"Mmmm... a little defensive this evening, I think. Well, how about we drop it, then." Kurt proceeded to chatter at Dave for a good ten minutes about the script he was reviewing ("The relationships between the main characters are completely unbelievable, but there's something compelling about it anyway..."). Dave was just about to tell him to bug off so he could get back to his work when the conversation made a U-turn.

"So if I mentioned the name of the person in question, would that be enough for you to give me anything in return? Because, let's face it, David, I clearly have nothing better to do than to gossip about the personal lives of kids from my hometown."

Dave was starting to see that resistance was completely useless. What was he so afraid of, anyway? What would Kurt possibly do with the knowledge that would actually hurt anyone? He didn't have to give him all the details, or anything. And if, by some miraculous coincidence, another former McKinley student had just come out, he'd like to know so he could be done with this.

"Okay."

"Okay," Kurt responded, with far too much excitement. "So Finn called me up yesterday, wailing and moaning that his best friend of twelve years had managed to keep a secret from him for nearly all of those years. Care to take a guess about the secret to which I am alluding?"

"Kurt. Can you please cut the crap and just tell me?"

"You don't have to be vulgar, David. Honestly, I don't know why I bother trying to be subtle with you anyway. It's Noah. He's apparently been swimming in our pool for at least the last several years."

Swimming in our pool. That was one way to put it. Dave let out a loud breath. "Yeah. I thought that might be it."

"You knew about this? Did you think you could have said something? What kind of best friend are you?"

"The kind who doesn't go around telling his other friends' secrets?" Especially when there was no way to explain how he knew without telling his own. Maybe he should feel a little guilty. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"Apology accepted. You haven't heard about anyone else, have you? Because Finn mentioned he's seeing someone - someone Finn knows, or knew. And apparently it's serious."

Serious? For one heart-stopping moment, Dave was positive that person couldn't be him. But Puck had said - hadn't he? That nothing else had been serious for a while? So it had to be.

"David? I didn't lose you there, did I?"

Dave took another long, steadying breath. "No. No, I'm here." Puck hadn't told Finn his name. Was he ashamed? Did he think Dave was?

He didn't want to lie to Kurt. And he had kept some pretty big secrets for Dave before. "Promise not to tell anyone unless I say you can?"

There was an audible squeal. "David! Okay - yes, yes, of course. Please, continue. I'm all ears."

"Okay. It's - the guy Puck was talking about. It's me. "

"I knew it!" Kurt sounded a little awed. "I'm not sure if I should be impressed or worried. Tell me he's treating you all right?"

"Is he... Yes, of course he is. But, Kurt, there's more. There's a reason I asked you not to tell. Because he's...he's kind of my student now."

"Your... David? Please tell me you're teaching him something... reasonably civil." Kurt's tone was teasing. "Wait, didn't you say that was an upper level course? Was there some kind of mix-up at the registrar's office?"

"Why does everybody think he's stupid? Because he's really not. He's got this amazing brain, that nobody ever told him he could use for anything. I'm lucky to have him in my class. He should be teaching the goddamn class, if there was any justice in the world at all."

Kurt made vague pacifying noises in his ear. "Don't blow a gasket, David. I believe you. Noah's always been one to surprise people. And somehow he managed to graduate without ever attending class, so that makes a kind of sense. But - honey, are you doing okay?" He sounded anxious. "This sounds like - well, like a big deal. Is it?"

"Yeah. I really am. And...I think it might be. A big deal. And I'm still okay." He laughed a little. "I have no idea what that means, but - yeah."

"God. This - I need a tissue. Just a second." Dave heard him sniffling. "I'm sorry. I'm so thrilled for you! You've had such a string of bad luck, and you... well, I want you to be happy."

"Whoa! Hey, Kurt, this is still really new, okay? I don't know...just promise me you won't call Puck and ask about wedding colors or anything, please? Because...he'd freak out, and I really don't want him to freak out."

"Trust me, David, I'm not saying anything to anybody. Oh, but can I at least tell Blaine? He's in Prague and he won't tell a word to a soul, honest."

"Yeah, okay, sure." Maybe giving Kurt a safety valve would be a good idea, and Blaine was better than any alternative Dave could think of.

Kurt gave a happy sigh. "I can tell you're about two minutes from hanging up on me, so I'll let you go. But next time, will you tell me all about it? I want to hear every little sordid fabulous detail, do you understand?"

Dave laughed. "Kurt, at least let me try to be a gentleman. I'll tell you everything I can, okay?"

"And this is Noah Puckerman we're talking about?" Kurt huffed. "What kind of gentleman would he want you to be? No, wait, don't answer that. I'll trust your judgment. David - I'm happy for you. Really. And I'll keep it to myself."

Dave thought the world was all kinds of wrong about what Noah Puckerman wanted, or needed, but he really didn't want to try to explain that, or how he felt about it.

"Thanks, Kurt. I appreciate that."

"Take care, David. I'll call you in a few days."

After Kurt hung up, Dave just sort of sat there for a while, trying to digest what had happened. Pascal wandered over and sniffed his foot. Dave bent down and picked him up, eliciting a meow.

"I know you hate being left out of the gossip, but it was nothing you don't know about already."

Pascal touched his nose to Dave's, then rubbed blissfully against his face, leaving a moist stripe of cat saliva on his cheek.

"Ugh, do you have to do that? It's kind of disgusting." Pascal looked at him reproachfully. "That's different, Pascal. You're my friend. Humans don't lick their friends. Usually. Puck is kind of a special case."

He must be pretty far gone if he was trying to explain proper physical boundaries to a cat. "Look, don't worry about it. It's all good. You really like him, right?"

Pascal purred under his attentive hand, draping himself over one shoulder and snuffling around in Dave's hair.

"And I really like him too. So I hope I didn't mess anything up too much."

Pascal seemed to be pretty confident that everything would be okay. At least, that's how Dave interpreted the lick to his ear.

"I should probably call him." He gently pushed Pascal out of the way so he could reach his phone. "If you'll excuse me." Pascal picked his disdainful way across the couch and sat as far on the other side as he could, settling into a tiny ball with only his nose and one eye showing.

"Fine. Be that way. See if I bring you any catnip mice this week." He stretched out his legs and called Puck's number.

There was a background hum of boys and girls kiaiing, over which Dave could hear Puck barking commands. "This is Connor. Can I help you?"

Oh. That was something it hadn't even occurred to him to be nervous about. "Um, this is Dave. I wanted to talk to Puck, but it sounds like he's busy, so maybe you could ask him to call me back later?"

"Hi, Dave." Connor's voice shifted from polite to positively chummy. "I'm sure he wouldn't want to miss you. Hang on."

"Okay." Dave really wasn't sure what to think of that guy. Should he have told him not to bother? Was this some kind of... no, he wouldn't think like that, Connor was Puck's friend and he'd never given Dave any reason to dislike him (well, except that really big one on his neck, but that was before he even knew Dave existed, so he couldn't really blame him for that.) This was taking a long time. Maybe Puck didn't want to talk to him. Maybe he should hang up.

He heard the sound of a door shutting and the noise of the room abruptly subsided. And, finally, Puck's voice, surprised, but definitely not upset. "Hey there."

"Hey." Dave felt a stupid grin take over his face, and mentally kicked himself a little. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your class."

"Oh, it's okay. We're just wrapping up here. These kids kind of check out mentally after about eight-thirty, so we usually end with some sparring and working in pairs on their forms." He could hear Puck smiling, too, so maybe he wasn't a total loser. "I didn't expect to hear from you before tomorrow. Thanks for calling."

Strike that, he totally was a loser, because hearing Puck say that made him want to say all sorts of stupid things, like I was thinking of you and I'll call you as often as you want. But he couldn't, because as much as that was true, he'd really called to apologize. "Okay, good. So how are things in Lima?"

"Pretty much the same as always." Puck could have been teasing him. "Everything ready for class? You can give me my assignment early and I'll have it done by tomorrow."

"No way. I want you to get some sleep tonight." He didn't doubt that Puck could get his homework done in an hour, but he didn't trust him not to find some unasked question that Dave didn't even know was there.

Dave heard him take a surprised breath, and then there was silence for a moment. He wondered if he'd said something wrong.

"Um. I'm kind of a night owl. But... yeah, okay. I can do that."

"No, I mean, I'm not telling you when to go to bed or anything. Jesus, I'm sorry. I just...you said those other problems had been keeping you awake. And I didn't want you to do that to impress me."

"Hey." His voice was gentle. "Dave. It's okay. It's not - you didn't say anything wrong." He laughed to himself. "I guess nobody's told me to go to bed in a long fucking time. It kind of hit me funny. It was... nice."

Dave took a deep breath. "I - you might want to wait to tell me that. There's something - I'm really sorry, okay? But I think I need to tell you. Kurt. He called me and asked about you. About us, really. I have no idea how he knew, I guess maybe Finn... anyway, I couldn't hold him off. So now he knows."

"Holy shit, man." Puck sounded abashed. "I don't know how he would have - well, okay, on Wednesdays, Finn and I get together for lunch and I help him with his math, and we play darts, and I... I told him. Not your name or anything, but about me. I, uh, told him I met this guy. I didn't think he would... shit."

"Are you okay? I made him promise not to tell anyone except Blaine. But still, I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's... it's okay. I should have figured he'd tell Kurt; they used to sit around at three in the morning over warm milk and tell each other all kinds of shit." He let out a heavy sigh. "I mean, it's no secret, really. I just don't talk about it." Puck sounded suddenly surprised. "Except I kind of did. I guess - I never really had a reason to tell people before."

Dave let his shoulders down a little. That almost sounded like...like what Kurt had said. Serious. "Okay. As long as you're okay with it. But you don't need to - I guess I assumed, and the last thing I want to do is pressure you into anything you're not ready for." And only a few days ago, he had been the one to tell Puck they had to be careful. Shit. "I mean, please don't think I'm ashamed of you, that's so far from the truth, I just... you should get to decide."

Dave heard him breathing, so he knew Puck was still there, but no words were forthcoming. Eventually, he cleared his throat. "Um... Dave, I... I don't know what to say." He dropped his voice a little. "You're okay with people knowing? About us?"

And there was Puck being insecure again, and Dave just wanted to hold him and give him everything, to tell him he was the best thing ever and he'd brag about him to anybody who'd listen. But he wanted it to be true. And it wasn't, not yet, not quite.

"As much as we can, okay?"

"Sure, that's fine. I'm not ashamed, and there's nothing wrong with what we're doing, right?" He sounded like he might be talking himself into something. "So whatever - I mean, you can tell anybody you want. And I'll keep it quiet at school. I promise."

It killed Dave a little to agree to that, but he guessed the harsh truth was that was all he had to offer. "Okay."

"In the meantime, I'm totally going to kick Finn's ass. And Kurt - well, I'll figure out something. I didn't realize you guys were friends?"

"Yeah, he calls me every week to tell me all the latest gossip. I don't know, at first I think he just liked that I felt too guilty to tell him to shut up, but we're actually really good friends now."

"Kind of funny how that happened, after how things were between the two of you. Well. I guess I could say the same about us, huh?"

"It wasn't ever that bad, was it? But I guess if Kurt could get over high school, there's no excuse for the rest of us."

Puck laughed, and Dave relaxed a little more. "He's an impressive guy, Dave, but nothing like you."

Dave laughed. He wasn't sure what Puck was getting at. "Well, no, we're pretty different."

"Good thing, too." His voice dropped to a near whisper. "I'm pretty sure I've never wanted to do the things to Kurt that I want to do to you."

He didn't even know what he meant by that, it was too confusing. He imagined Puck and Kurt, and then himself in Kurt's place, and he didn't know how he was supposed to feel about how different those images looked, or about the fact that Puck had just said he preferred the one with Dave in it. He - he was kind of stuck on the idea of Puck wanting to do things to him. "Oh." That was all the answer he really had, but Puck didn't seem to mind.

"Heh. I think Connor's about to bust a gut out there, watching me through the office window." He didn't seem bothered by this. "He's already teasing me every chance he gets. I'd better get going so we can wrap up this class. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Connor. He'd almost forgotten about him, about the fact that he was there with Puck in Lima, waiting for him. Did he stay at Puck's house, when he was there? No, Puck lived with his mother, didn't he, but then that probably wouldn't stop him from... no. Not thinking about that. It was none of his business what Puck did when he wasn't with him. "Sure, see you tomorrow."

"Dave?"

"Yeah, what?"

"Um. It's okay, what happened with Kurt. Don't worry about it. And... I'll get some sleep."

Dave smiled in spite of himself. "It was nice talking to you."

"You think you might have some time tomorrow, after class? Somewhere not too close to campus."

"Yeah, I think so. We could go for another coffee."

He heard Puck chuckle. "Dude - not exactly what I had in mind, but if that's all you want, I can be cool with that."

Dave wanted to smother himself with a cushion or something, because how stupid could you get? And now he'd probably missed his chance, because he had no idea how to take that back. "No - no, I mean, I... If you want something else, that's...that would be fine."

"You'd better think about where, then. Because otherwise it's going to be my truck, and I can't promise it's the most comfortable place, even with a couple blankets."

One good thing about Puck, when Dave missed some kind of invitation he could usually count on another one coming along soon. "Well. You could come home with me. I have furniture."

"Sounds useful. I'm in." His smile warmed Dave all the way from Lima. "See you then."