A/N: so i really like writing the puckleberry bromance. Please review let me know what you think and where it can be improved and if you have any ideas ect. thanks for reading!
-pip
Walking down the hall of the Berry house was an experience in it self. In her old home , with her parents their were no personal decorations, everything was modern and the atmosphere was very forced. No family portraits adorned the walls and everything was in its exact place. In her own building it was more her, in fact it was almost exactly like her, the outer rooms and the public areas resembled that of her old home. Formal and fitting, but for those who were allowed past the living room and hallway, and into the heart of the house there was a much more personal feel.
Quinn's bedroom, her basement and the kitchen echoed the personality of the blonde. She had her own unique touch in the way it was set out, and pictures of the glee club and the cheerios covered the majority of the space. Koda had his own little space in the corner of each room, that he never used because why sleep in a bed when your owner will cuddle you every night!
Here in the Berry house hold, it was perfect. Quinn fell in love immediately. It was homely and safe and warm. Quinn's own apartment was more personal, but with only one person there it was still just a place to sleep. As she walked down the hall she looked at each picture on the wall, and every frame on the cabinets. Rachel when she was little, with her two dads, Quinn knew as Hiram and Leroy, the trio at an ice skating rink, on a trip to New York, Hiram and Leroy's wedding photo's…there were so many memories in the hallway alone.
What surprised Quinn a little was the amount of times that Puck frequented the pictures. It was hard to tell, but the little 8 year old with the messy Mohawk and cocky grin that present Puck still wore was a tell tale sign that this was McKinley's very own Noah Puckerman…. apparently making daisy chains with Rachel!
Quinn decided to file that away under 'for future reference' .
Coming to the end of the hall, Quinn noticed the piano that was filtering through the speakers in the house. She didn't recognize the song but fell in love immediately. Turning the corner into the kitchen where the light was shining, she saw Rachel trying to reach something from one of her top cabinets – unsuccessfully. That should have set warning lights off in Quinns mind but she didn't notice, instead she noticed the fact that Rachel was wearing very short sleep shorts, that barely covered her and left little to the imagination because, have you seen that girls legs!
"Like what you see?" Rachel started pointedly, "When your finished, can you grab me a plate from the tall ass cupboard"
Quinn's cheeks tinged pink, for one, Rachel just managed to speak like a normal person, for two she hadn't ever heard her say anything remotely close to swearing before, and three….. " I was just looking at your benches Berry, don't flatter yourself"
"Of course, that's what I was referring too…"
"right" Quinn stayed where she was, surveying the rest of the room, eyes looking everywhere except at the brunette.
Rachel stopped her efforts, really they weren't doing anything anyway, and sat in one of the chairs
"would you mind….?" She asked gesturing at the distant plates at the top of the cabinet, "Daddy should get shorter cupboards, just because he is a giant.." she joked , trying to ease some of the tension.
"Right, yeah sure, okay" Quinn moved to the cupboard and reached up and grabbed two plates easily, " I can reach them". She chided herself for being so awkward and nervous. She decided to try and make conversation
"What song is it that you are listening to?" she asked with genuine interest.
"oh, this is one of my favorites, S showed it to me, its called 'follow you into the dark' have you heard of it before?" Rachel replied, reprimanding herself silently for the use of San's nickname, she didn't know how Quinn would react to the fact that Santana as over Rachel's house almost as much as she frequented Quinn's.
"No, I haven't, who is it by?", thankfully it seemed Quinn didn't notice.
"Death Cab for Cutie, I can show you some of their stuff if you want, just let me plate up some snacks and we will go to my room…" Rachel continued talking but Quinn had lost track after Rachel had said 'my room', her mind immediately fast-forwarding to all the things that could happen in said room.
"…..and I am sure you will love them' Rachel finished with a gracious smile. Quinn had no idea what she was talking about so she just nodded agreement.
Turns out, it was eating vegan food, which wasn't that bad seeing as because it turns out Rachel is an amazing cook and Quinn had been living on two minute noodles and bread.
The shorter girl looked on in amusement as she watched Quinn devour both of the plates of food she had set out, albeit they were small snacks – it was THREE AM after all, but the appetite that Quinn appeared to have matched that of Puck on one of his worse days.
"Right then, I am guessing more food is going to be needed" She remarked, trying to catch the preoccupied girls attention.
"Oh dear god please yes" Quinn mumbled around her food unashamedly, this was heavenly. She missed proper food.
Rachel having blushed slightly at the moans coming from her guest, decided that if she got to hear more sounds like that, then more food would defiantly be gracing the table tonight.
Rachel assesse the ravenous girl for a few seconds, she was definitely going to treat this like a 'Noah' Scenario. Normally this was only used in special cases, like after he had been dumped by a girl he had actually started to care about, or that time his kitten died, or when they lose a really big game.
Reaching into the far end of the fridge, Rachel pulled out her secret weapon.
"Dear god is that Bacon!" the way Quinn said the word bacon with such reverent tones was equal to that of worshipping a god. It would have been sexy if it wasn't directed at a chunk of dead meat.
"yes , I keep it around for Noah….he is…here a lot" she trailed off, realizing she almost gave away Noah as well as Santana. Luckily Quinn was still preoccupied with her food so just nodded through a mouthful.
Silence settled over them once Quinn had finished her food, the crack of the oil and bacon in the pan was between them.
"Do you have anything I can make for you?" finally Quinn asked before the tension drove her mad. " I am a pretty terrible cook, but I am sure I can probably make something"
Rachel smiled at the gesture " No that's quite all right , I have it covered" she said , flipping a few pieces of bacon over .
Quinn watched her for a bit, and Rachel could see her mind working trying to figure out what she would eat.
"Just wait a few moments, you will see" she said secretively.
When Quinn realized that they were about to fall into silence she quickly tried to keep up conversation.
"So, Puck and you used to be friends"
Rachel glanced up from the pan and smiled, "Yeah we met at temple when we were kids"
"He seems pretty close with you in the pictures" the blonde remarked
"Yeah. We used to be close" Rachel replied non committedly, still sporting a grin.
A new voice came in from the hallway
"Hey! We are close"
Puck , after being woken up by the lovely scent of cooking pig -the ONLY thing that can wake him up- walked into the room with an accusatory glance at Rachel. "Babe" he smirked at the tiny girl in greeting, looking around the room and noticing Quinn. He did a quick double glance but apparently found nothing abnormal over the fact that it was almost 4 in the morning and two supposed enemies were chatting over breakfast. "Baby Mama" he gave her the sup nod, before staring lovingly at the food that was now finished cooking "bacon" he said with adoration lacing his voice .
"Oh I see how it is" Rachel laughed in mock indignation, "perhaps I will let Quinn here eat ALL of this lovely bacon shall I?" she teased
"No! What! Come on Rae," He said pleadingly, if not a little pathetically for such a 'badass'. "You know I love you and your amazing cooking and how you make the bacon just right and crispy and…!" he trailed off at the end with a dreamy look in his eye.
Quinn had watched all this with an open mouth, her mind racing to from conclusions. Noah Puckerman was at Rachel Berry's house , in the middle of the night, telling her he loved her like it was nothing, and speaking as if with a familiarity that only a lover or family member could have.
"Wow. Okay then, I didn't know you two were still… wow. Did not expect that, how long has that been…. " Quinn was basically talking to herself, and Rachel could see the conclusion she had jumped to. An idea sparked in her mind, and by the glint in Pucks eyes, she thinks that he had a matching notion.
She looked to Puck to confirm that it was all right to let the HBIC know about his living arrangements, and once established she leaned in conspiratorially to him, disguising it as a hug and whispering into his ear "just play along okay"
Puck leaned back slightly and saw the mischievous glint in her eye and liked it immediately.
Puck was, along with Santana, one of the few people who knew Quinn's secret. Not from her telling him of course, he wasn't sure she even was aware of how deeply in love with Rachel she was, but he had a chance to really get to know her, having a baby with someone makes you understand a lot about them. You get to know the good ,and the bad and all of the secrets. So when he came downstairs in the early hours of morning to find his girl sitting in their shared kitchen with the previously mentioned Quinn, he was not surprised at all, secretly he was gleeful and doing jumping jacks inside. He was waiting for this moment for a long time. He needed to message Santana. Soon.
"I made it just the way you liked it" Rachel said as she turned away from Puck, taking the frying pan off the heat finally. She felt Puck press against her back and wrap his arms around her torso.
"Thanks babe, you sure you don't want some" he asked waving a piece of heaven in front of her face.
"Ew no, get that out of my face and make me some food worth eating" she scolded, turning in his arms so that Quinn couldn't see her face before winking at him, then ducking under one of his muscular arms she took the plate to Quinn and sat down next to her.
"Puck knows how to sort me out" she told her, voice dripping with innuendo. She saw Quinn gulp and blanch, before shaking it off and nod slightly . She smiled inwardly to herself.
" He is really good with his hands, and he knows just how to use them she said, noting how Quinns jaw had dropped slightly and she was looking at Rachel with an incredulous look as if to say 'am I hearing this right'
– "He is especially good during the night like this" Quinn tried to hide her discomfort unsuccessfully. Rachel was close to cracking a smile now, and she was about to open her mouth again, when Puck joined the conversation.
"You should really try me out sometime baby mama, I have improved greatly with Rae's help"
That was the straw that broke her back, Rachel broke out in laughter, quickly being joined by Puck. Tears streamed out of her eyes and her belly heaved somewhat painfully, the look on Quinn's face was too precious.
"that was" Rachel tried to speak through her laughter "that was oh god" she clutched her belly trying to breath in "you should have seen your face!" she cackled before breaking down again. Through their laughing, Quinn just sat with stiff upper back, she wasn't too sure what the joke was, she just knew that she was very uncomfortable.
She couldn't believe Rachel would be so forward! Didn't she have some plan to wait till she was 40 or something! She didn't know why, but the thought of Rachel and Puck doing ..anything together made her nauseous. It was probably because she had slept with puck, so she was jealous of Rachel. Jealous of Rachel for getting to kiss puck..right? So why was it Puck she wanted to punch in the face.
"Puck is really good…..at cooking vegan meals….." Rachel made out through laughter, and Quinn's face dawned with realization and Rachel watches as the face transformed through several emotions – understanding, relief, anger, before finally settling on humor. Let bygones be bygones right. This carefree Rachel was new, odd but interesting, and there was no use kicking up a fuss about it.
"Right. Good work, you got me there" she laughed with them, an unusual trait for her, especially seeing as the joke was onher . "How long have you two been together?" she asked conversationally, trying to squash the urge to punch Puck.
"Oh we're not" the said at the exact same time, in the same tone of dismissal. It was creepy
"What?" she asked incredulously
"We're not dating. That's…..well no offence to the second hottest jew in the room but….that's gross" Rachel said with a slight disgusted look on her face. Puck had a matching expression.
"Yeah, dating Rae would be like dating my sister" Puck blanched further at the thought.
"So what….? Quinn gestured between them, "was all that about then….other than messing with poor old me?"
"Noah and his obnoxiously loud snoring has been under this roof for almost 2 years now…." Rachel gave Quinn a very brief run down of the circumstance in which Noah had fallen into. "And that's all there is too it.." she finished as if it was the simplest thing in the world .
"that's all there is to it" Quinn repeated with a question in her voice, and the three fell into an awkward silence. Puck twiddled his thumbs as he looked between the two girls who were locked in each others stare. After a few minutes of silence he jumped to his feet, taking some bacon with him he left the room with only a "welll...er...night then. Later" thrown towards the girls.
"In your own bed this time" Rachel yelled after him, receiving only a grunt before the boy was gone. "He his insufferable sometimes, and by that I mean he is a dick most of the time" Rachel said with a fond tone to her voice. It reminded Quinn sort of how you would talk about your favorite puppy when it has done something naughty.
"So. You came here to talk, and I know it wasn't about Noah's living habits. Lets go to my room" Rachel reached over the countertop and took the other girls hand in her own boldly, dragging her out of her chair and down the hall. All of Quinn's senses overloaded from the simple touch and she followed Rachel blindly up the stairs and into her bedroom. Her bedroom where she slept, and did ….other things in. Her bedroom where her bed was.
Oh shit. Her bedroom.