Chapter Three
oOo
Summary: Will the proud music teacher eventually find love with the beautiful kindergarten teacher or will he forever come second to the football coach? This isn't very M but, to be safe, I'll leave it at that.
A/N 1: I'm tickled pink by all your responses and to JasonDragon64, I think Marcy picked up the vibes of Noah's interest in Kurt when he asked when they'd be going for coffee. However, in Ch. 2 she flipped on her opinion simply because Noah smiled his sexy smile at her. She just met the guy so she had no reason really to jump to any conclusions but we're often guilty of that. I'm so sorry I didn't make that clear but I'll try to do better.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belongs to me except for any OCs found wandering. I own nothing save for this computer.
Kurt fiddled with the paper wrapper for his straw as he watched Noah settle Judith beside him. Breadstix was thankfully not crowded at this hour and he took a sip of his diet Coke as he glanced around the familiar restaurant. So much of his life had been spent here as a teen and he smiled softly as his mind dredged up the memories. He had kept in touch with Mercedes who was still living in L.A. and he heard from Tina and Mike every now and then. Strangely enough, Puck – no, Noah, as he seemed to prefer – was one of the few he had not kept in touch with and he wondered why.
His attention flew back to the man in question as a voice was cleared and he looked up to see Noah staring intently at him. There was silence but for Judith slurping her juice and Kurt fidgeted before smiling tentatively at Noah.
"What – do I have something on my face?" He kept his voice light and playful but he couldn't help wondering why Noah looked so serious. However, the other man smiled softly before looking down at the ice melting in his own drink.
"No, I was just cataloguing the changes from the last time we saw each other." The honest reply was issued so solemnly that Kurt blushed inexplicably.
"Oh, well, I'm sure you notice that there are a few lines now that weren't there eight years ago," he retorted flippantly, trying to sound dismissive but his voice had softened a bit. He ducked his head and then looked at Judith, deciding he needed a break from Noah's intensity.
"So, did you like your first day at Kindergarten, sweetie?" Kurt loved the way her face lit up at the question and chuckled when the little girl started gushing.
For the next five minutes Judith had the full attention of both men as she outlined for them all her favourite parts of the day. "…and Briony says she liked my hair. Hers is yellow but she says she wished it was curly like mine!"
Kurt nodded and grinned up at Noah, amused by what Judith thought was the best part of the day. Noah smiled back at him and then turned to his daughter.
"Did you learn anything new today, doll?" He was happy that his baby girl had enjoyed her day but he wanted her to focus on other things beside playtime and curly hair versus straight hair. He nodded encouragingly as she paused in her slurping to think about her answer.
"Oh, yes, we learned about primary colours, didn't we, Mr. Kurt?" Judith was very happy that her new teacher was a friend of her daddy's; maybe he would make her daddy smile more. Mr. Kurt was very pretty so maybe her dad would be happy now.
Kurt nodded approvingly. "Do you remember the meanings of the colours, Judith?" Kurt wanted the little girl to show off for her dad so he gave her a mental nudge.
"Oh, daddy, I know, I know! Blue is for honesty… red is for courage aaaand…" she paused with a comically serious look on her little round face before continuing triumphantly, "…and yellow is for happiness!"
Noah and Kurt applauded with quiet cheers – they were in the middle of a restaurant, after all – and then they all laughed. Judith was justifiably proud of herself and in her backpack she had a painting with those colours just for her daddy.
Their food finally came and they dug in, Judith eating all her fries first just like her dad. She laughed at Kurt who placed some of his fries inside his burger – 'yes, I do eat meat,' he retorted when Noah teased him – and explained he liked everything to finish at the same time.
The conversation was kept to a minimum by the adults, not wanting Judith to linger too long over her meal but they managed to ask after their mutual acquaintances. No one seemed to know what Santana or Artie were up to these days but Noah volunteered that Quinn had set out her shingle in the Big Apple.
Kurt dabbed at his lips with his napkin and after a quick sip of his soda, frowned thoughtfully at Noah. "You know, I don't really see Quinn as a cutthroat lawyer; an advocate, maybe, for like illegal immigrants or women, something like that."
There was a little silence as Noah stared at him before a short burst of laughter escaped him. "Wow, that hit the nail on the head; she is an advocate – for battered women." He stared at Kurt with something like awe in his dark eyes and Kurt blushed again.
"Oh, well, it's just that beneath that whole high school, 'I must be popular by all means' thing she had going on, I suspected that there was a heart for others, you know…" he trailed off as his fingers fiddled again with the straw wrapper.
Noah grinned and leaned back, placing his napkin beside his plate. His eyes roved all over Kurt's fair face before saying quietly: "You were the one that surprised me, actually."
Kurt's head flew up and he stared, wide-eyed at the man opposite him. He vaguely noted that Judith was fidgeting uneasily but he couldn't pull his eyes away from Noah's serious face. "Me, how?"
Noah smiled softly as he leaned forward, his fingers rubbing a short line, back and forth, in the space between their plates. He shook his head but said, "I don't know, I just thought that you were hell bent on seeing your name up in lights or something – you and Berry."
Kurt relaxed and sat back, but his eyes were riveted to Noah's long, tanned fingers moving back and forth on the table. "Uhm, yeah, I guess we drove everyone crazy with our talk of NYADA, Rachel and I."
Noah snorted softly in agreement. "Yeah, sometimes I wanted to stuff a sock in her mouth every time she would wave her hand in the air, 'Mr. Schue, Mr. Schue!'"
He and Kurt burst out laughing at his spot-on imitation of Rachel during most of their glee club meetings. Kurt shook his head in admonition, though, and narrowed his eyes at Noah.
"So you didn't feel like stuffing a sock in my mouth?"
Noah stared at the mock pout before looking up into Kurt's eyes: "Not a sock, no."
The silence that followed stretched unbearably as Kurt stared wide-eyed and bit his lip at the innuendo Noah had just made. The building tension between the two men was shattered when Judith piped up.
"Daddy, daddy, I have to go…!" Both men stared at her before Kurt pushed his chair back abruptly and held his hand out.
"Okay, sweetie, we'll go while your dad takes care of the bill, okay?" Kurt grasped the proffered hand and he and Judith made their way briskly to the back of the restaurant and the ladies' room. He was happy that the place was almost empty and there was no one in there to stare pointedly at him as he walked in with Judith.
Back at their table, Noah took out his credit card and placed it in the folder their server had left with them. He dropped his head in one hand and shook it, kicking himself mentally for making Kurt uncomfortable.
He had been doing so well, he thought as he smiled absently when the server came to retrieve the folder. He gazed out the window and thought back to the first time he realised he'd had less than platonic feelings for Kurt, a boy.
When Rachel had come up with that crazy idea in their senior year to have an anti-Prom, Noah had gone along with the whole thing as he'd been bummed out by how his life had been going. Everything seemed to have been conspiring to get his life to follow his loser dad's and so when they'd all ended up at that hotel room, he'd been fine with it.
Rachel Berry, Blaine Anderson, Kurt Hummel, Becky Johnson and him, Noah Puckerman – they'd planned to have their own celebrations and when Berry, Blaine and Kurt had left after Finn turned up, he'd been fine with just Becky and him. She'd wanted to be Prom Queen though and he'd thought, damn it, why not. They'd fashioned their own crowns and he'd laughed, happy that she was enjoying herself. When they turned up at the Senior Prom later, though, he'd watched Kurt dancing with Blaine, a glow on his face and his pink lips curved in that happy smile and it hit him then: he wanted that.
Staring over Becky's head with her six-pack cardboard crown, he'd frowned as Blaine kissed Kurt's throat while Santana sang the heck out of Berlin's 'Take My Breath Away'. He wasn't much for self-delusion and he'd known, in an abstract kind of way that Hummel was hot. Shoot, no one could look at him strutting along the hallways and not notice how nicely he'd grown into those skinny jeans of his.
Now he realised that maybe he should have put on his big boy pants and said something to Kurt. Who knows, it probably would have prevented Kurt from dating the likes of Karofsky. Damn, he still couldn't get his head around it, wondering what in hell Kurt had seen in the boy that had made him transfer from McKinley to that all-boys preppy prison.
He looked up when the server returned with his card and receipt and shot an appreciative smile at her, grinning inwardly as she flushed before darting off. He didn't always do it on purpose just to see women get flustered around him, it just happened and he sometimes wondered how they'd react if they knew he swung both ways.
Judith dashed up to him and climbed onto her chair, babbling away about the restroom and how Mr. Kurt had turned red when a lady had come in there and seen him waiting for her. Kurt chuckled as he sat down opposite Noah and took up his drink, the residue of his blush from the encounter still clear to see.
Noah smiled at them both and then asked Kurt what the woman had said. Kurt chuckled after swallowing the sip he'd taken and shook his head.
"The poor woman just stared at me and then backed out of the room. You'd swear she'd seen a bear or something, the way her eyes were bugging out." He and Judith laughed again while Noah continued to gaze at him.
Finally he looked down at his daughter and then back up at Kurt. "So, if you guys are ready, I think we need to head on out. What do you think?"
Judith predictably pouted. "But, daddy, what about dessert? I always get a cookie!"
Kurt nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, we can't leave without dessert, daddy!" He grinned as he imitated the little girl, chuckling at her but when the silence from across the table stretched out, he looked up straight into Noah's heated eyes.
He suddenly realised how what he'd said could have come across and he gulped, recognising that Noah was not only stunned but turned on by him. He felt his throat go dry and his eyelashes fluttered as he glanced quickly away from the man in front of him, hoping his own face wasn't reddening.
Kurt had always had a little thing for Puck, back in the day, but he'd never let on and when he and Blaine had become an item, it had been happily shoved to the back of his head. Now as he stared at the handsome face across from him, he couldn't deny that the possibility of finally fulfilling a fantasy was stretching before him.
"Daddy!"
They were both jerked out of their highly inappropriate eye-fucking and he felt like throwing the remnants of his cold drink on his burning face. Noah blinked and looked down at his seriously-pouting daughter and cleared his throat.
"Er, yeah, right, cookie; what kind of cookie, babe?" He stared desperately at the little girl, thankful that she was too young to pick up on the undercurrents flowing back and forth between him and Kurt. Jesus, he could shoot himself for the way things were spiraling out of control between them now. It was never his intention to even let Kurt know that he was interested – heck, had been for a long time – and now he had no idea how to proceed.
He lifted his hand slightly to get the attention of their server who hurried over to them, a faintly seductive smile on her face as she breathed more than asked what else she could get for him. He grinned as he saw Kurt roll his eyes out of the corner of his own and asked her for a dessert menu. She seemed quite happy that they were interested in prolonging their time there and she hurried away to return in less than 10 seconds.
Judith planted the laminated menu upright before her as she stared at the glossy photos display a variety of cookies. Her daddy looked kind of funny and so did Mr. Kurt but maybe if they had something nice they would start smiling at each other again. She took her time and finally chose two cookies – one chocolate chip and one with M&Ms embedded in it. She knew she was pushing her luck but she planned to whine as best she could if her daddy denied her her choices.
Noah was so distracted by the silence between him and Kurt that he only nodded when Judith announced what she wanted and she grinned happily before turning to Mr. Kurt.
"What are you going to have, Mr. Kurt? Do you like strawberry ice cream? That's my favourite but daddy's favourite is chocolate. I like chocolate but I prefer strawberry because the colour is so pretty. Pink is my very favourite colour!"
Kurt was thankful for the little girl's rambling chatter and he nodded now as he smiled at her. "Why, chocolate is one of my favourites, too, but I think I will have a slice of cheesecake today. I love cheesecake; do you like cheesecake?"
He didn't think he sounded desperate but he knew his voice was a little breathy and he hoped Noah wouldn't pick up on how discomfited he was by what seemed to be happening between them. Good Gaga, it seemed Marcy had been right, after all. Oh, my, the heat between them just now could have singed their eyebrows – and God bless little girls and dessert!
When the server returned for their orders, Noah added his choice – a blondie brownie with chunks of white chocolate and macadamia nuts. They ate in silence when the dessert came except for when Judith demanded a refill of her juice because she declared she couldn't eat her cookies without drinking anything. Kurt had giggled at Noah's long-suffering air and it was then that the tension seemed to dissipate.
Kurt insisted on paying for dessert as Noah had already paid for their dinner and after a bit of wrangling about it, he triumphantly handed his card to their server. Finally, they headed outside to their cars, Noah opening up his Chevy Suburban and strapping Judith into her car seat. He glanced over at Kurt's gleaming mid-size hybrid and smiled before he turned to gaze at him.
"I see you got rid of that gas guzzler you had in school," he smirked at Kurt who pretended to pout.
"My baby was no gas guzzler… okay, so she was," he agreed, grinning as he remembered the Lincoln Navigator he'd rocked back in his last two years of high school. It was a good thing his dad had owned that garage or else he could never have afforded a vehicle like that brand new.
They grinned at each other before Noah took a step away from his car to look shyly at Kurt. "Look, I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable back there…" he began quietly, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I – uh – I…"
Kurt chuckled and shook his head, taking a step closer to him and lowering his voice as well so Judith couldn't hear him. "Noah, we're both grownups here; it's clear that there seems to be a connection, right?"
He waited for Noah to actually look at him and then he grew serious. "I'm a little confused, though. Were you always bi?"
Noah let out a breath and tilted his head up to the reddening sky. He then glanced at Judith who was engrossed in a book she'd left on the back seat before looking back to Kurt waiting with an enquiring look in his blue-green eyes.
"I started experimenting in college, nothing serious, y'know. After college though, I met Judith's mother and… well, things got heavy real fast… and then there was Judith."
Kurt nodded understandingly. "Her mom isn't around now?" His voice was soft and sympathetic and Noah subconsciously relaxed. He jiggled the car keys in his hands and then smiled at Kurt.
"No, and that's a good thing, believe me. Berry had nothing on her in the drama department." He glanced at Judith and then took another step forward, coming so close to Kurt that he could see the grey-green striations in the blue eyes despite the red glow from the setting sun.
"I – don't know what it is about you, Kurt, apart from the fact that you're freaking beautiful!" He chuckled as Kurt's eyes widened before he chuckled too, looked down at the ground and then back up at Noah from beneath his lashes. Noah took a deep breath because there was no way in hell Kurt didn't know what that look was doing to him.
He swallowed hard and then stepped back, noting the faint disappointment in Kurt's eyes that he masked quickly. His free hand reached to grab Kurt's and he stared down at their fingers together before looking back up at Kurt.
"Look, I just got back here and maybe we can explore this – thing – later. I don't want to rush anything because," and he paused, wondering if he should say the rest but then decided to go for it; "I think I could fall really hard for you, Kurt."
Kurt's gasp came on a soft breath of air and Noah smiled at the dumbstruck look on his face. "See, I finally made Lima's favourite diva speechless!"
He squeezed the hand he held lightly and then stepped back, letting go and putting his other hand on his car door handle. He was a little worried with Kurt's continued silence but it was early days yet. He leapt into his seat and slipped the key into the ignition, smiling softly at Kurt who still stood beside the vehicle.
Kurt shook himself out of his stupor and dredged up a smile that was genuine, his eyes sparkling as he leaned against the door to say goodbye to Judith. She waved at him, the colourful little reading book quickly regaining her attention and he turned to Noah.
He didn't address what Noah had just said but he patted the top of the door frame and gave Noah an inviting little grin, sure the man would get the message. Noah grinned back at him, winked and then backed out of his parking space. Kurt stood there and when Noah's vehicle straightened out, he waved to him and then unlocked his car door.
He pulled out of his spot and then turned in the opposite direction to Noah's, a pleased little smile wreathing his lips.
Oh my, he breathed to himself as he made his way home, he would never have guessed when he got out of bed that morning that he would be going to bed that night with the thought of an amorous Noah Puckerman dancing in his head.
Damn, somebody up there surely loved him!
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TBC
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A/N 2: Sorry, I know this was a little shorter than usual but it felt natural to end here, with Kurt so upbeat at the thought of things getting hotter with Noah. Keep sending me those reviews and PMs because I absolutely love to hear from all you wonderful Puckurt fans out there!
