Noah Puckerman getting invited to a party wasn't that big of a deal. After all, he was the stud of McKinley High, and people usually invited him to parties because they were afraid he would beat them up if they didn't.

Truth was, however, Puck usually didn't care for losers' parties. They usually sucked and ended by midnight either way, because some sick old neighbor called the police or because the loser throwing the reportedly "best party ever" had parents who came home before first couple had made out.

Well, who cared? Most of the kids in Lima were losers either way. He would've denied it two years ago, but the only kids, who actually had some awesomeness to them, were the Glee kids and that was saying something.

Still, not all of the Glee kids had the badassness Puck was looking for in his circumstances, so when the news started running that Rachel Berry, out of all the people in this entire godforsaken world, had decided to throw a party, with alcohol, he was more than a little lamed out, though surprised. Seriously? Rachel? Throwing a party? Sure, he had gotten the girl to make out with him last year and to be honest, she was quite hot, but he couldn't for the life of him imagine her throwing a party. She was pretty much the biggest prude he had ever made out with!

Still, he contemplated going. He definitely contemplated going. He just had to get some facts straight before deciding whether or not he would just decide to have a major headache after a wild night with one of his cougars instead.

And Puck wasn't one to believe in secondary sources. He had to get the facts straight from the primary source, and in this case, as lame as it sounded, the primary source happened to be Rachel Berry.

"Hey Rach," he said as he approached the choir room, in which she sat practicing one or another probably totally sucky original song, for the second time that week. Seriously, "My Headband?" Even he could do better than that!

Rachel barely took her time to look at him, before she turned back to her oh-so-precious work. Puck got in front of the piano, facing her.

"So…," he began, pulling off his flirty look, - "Rumor has it you're throwing a party?"

Rachel looked up at him, a huge, genuine smile appearing on her face. She looked quite pleased with herself, proud like a five-year-old who'd just made a mediocre drawing. And then she opened her mouth: "As a matter of fact, I am, Noah. If you would like to come, the pleasure would be all mine, but I have to inform you that I have a very restricted mess policy in my house, meaning no sitting on anything, and we can only have two wine coolers per each, or else everything will get completely out of hand, and…"

That sounded totally lame, and all Puck could ask was: "Would you relax for like, two seconds?" He tried his best not to sound annoyed.

He didn't know why, but deep, deep, DEEP down inside he had to admit that he didn't want to disappoint the poor girl. She was already stepping out of her comfort zones enough, throwing a party for Finn to possibly at least start hanging out with her again.

Oh come on! He wasn't stupid! Everyone could see how she lusted for that boy; you wouldn't have to be Mr. Matchmaker to know that!

Rachel didn't look offended, but she actually sat back down, chewed on her lip, trying for the life of her not to speak as Puck started his cross-examination: "Where your dads at?"

He had to admit he sounded like Will Schuester in his most responsible state.

"They're gone for the weekend. I don't really know where, but they said they…"

"OK and here comes the word vomit!" Puck exclaimed, but he kept a grin that revealed the fact that he wasn't mad at her. Really, he wasn't.

"Sorry." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I'll be quiet."

"I'd appreciate it," Puck grinned, and Rachel gave away a chuckle.

"So," Puck said, trying to sound as casual and non-intentional as possible, - "Who's coming?"

"Oh, the usual. Tina, Mike, Artie, Mercedes, Finn, Quinn told me she'd be there, and I heard Santana and Brittany are coming too."

She probably gave Puck a knowing look, as if she knew he would be super happy knowing they'd be there or something. Who the fuck cared about Santana and Brittany? OK, holy hell… Where did that come from?

"I don't know about Lauren," Rachel began, thinking as she chewed on her bottom lip some more, - "But I guess so, since you're gonna be there."

She gave him a wink. What did she think? That he was some sex shark looking for every girl in this entire… OK, don't answer that. It was pretty true. Or at least, it appeared very true to the world.

"Sam will be there!" Rachel exclaimed, as she accidentally forgot that the Glee club actually had gotten new members over the last months.

"And of course Kurt and Blaine!"

"I'm in," Puck said immediately, before realizing that was maybe a little too bluntly. At least Rachel stared at him dumbfounded.

"OK…," she said slowly, before regaining her senses again, - "Looking forward to see you there, then!"

Puck grinned, hoping his weird, apparently-constantly-changing personality went through to her unannounced. He doubted it though. The girl was many things, but she wasn't stupid.

Puck decided to leave her alone.

The weekend came and the party came with it, and as soon as Puck entered the door of the Berry household, he realized how lame this was gonna be. For one, Rachel was dressed like something from before Jesus reportedly walked the earth. Puck's mood lightened however, if only just for a little while, when he saw Kurt sitting on Rachel's floor, chatting with Blaine. Puck gave him a reassuring nod, which he returned, somewhat nervously or hesitant or whatever.

The night went by, and luckily Puck somewhere along the way managed convincing Rachel that breaking into her dads' liquor cabinet was a good idea.

He made sure not to have too many drinks himself though. Glancing discretely (or so he thought) over to the place in which Hummel was standing, he figured the boy wasn't drinking. Probably because he was going to be driving, Puck thought, amazing himself for a second how incredibly smart he was even when drinking. However, the thought of him standing right beside him, watching all the fucked up things he did when he was drunk, was a terrifying idea, so he'd better stay relatively sober for him at a party… Which wasn't sober at all, mind you.

After a couple of rounds of spin the bottle had come and gone (Puck being horrifyingly disappointed he and Kurt didn't get to kiss) Puck suddenly got an idea! He could walk up to Hummel and ask him to drive him home tonight. That was an excellent idea! And it wasn't giving away too much of anything. With determined, though a little clumsy (who cared? He was still hot) steps, he walked towards the spot in which Kurt was standing. As he moved in closer, even he, in the state that he was, could see that Kurt was feeling a little… sad?

"Hey, Kurty…," he whispered as he laid an arm around Kurt's shoulders.

Damn, where did that totally lame nickname come from?

Kurt frowned and flinched away slightly. Shit, this was so not a good move, but Puck's body wouldn't listen to Puck's brain at the moment.

"So it's Kurty now, not Hummel," Kurt said, sounding somehow like he was talking to a five-year-old.

"Gottaproblem?" Damn, he didn't mean to slur so much.

Kurt shrugged, lifting Puck's arm off him in the process. Puck decided to believe that wasn't intentional. The countertenor didn't answer his question.

"It's Blaine again, isn't it?" Puck said, a little too loud. Although, knowing Blaine was so drunk he was going all Jack Sparrow on the place, he probably hadn't noticed the slightest. Kurt obviously still thought it was the end of the world though.

"Will you be quiet for a second," he yelled-whispered. His yell-whispering was hella sexy by the way.

"Shorry… Shorry…," Puck said softly, while leaning on Kurt for some kind of weird comfort. He was stroking Kurt's hair in the process, realizing he had really soft hair. What a surprise. "I won't do it anymore," Puck continued, giving puppy-eyes all of a sudden. "Am I forgiven?"

He tried to pull off his usual charming grin, but he was afraid it looked like a retarded grimace instead right now.

Kurt couldn't hold back his chuckle. "Yes, you're forgiven," he said, his cheeks turning somewhat red.

Puck suddenly had the urge to touch Kurt's face for just a moment. He figured he should just go for it. He leaned forward a little, and, somewhat awkwardly, put two of his fingers on Kurt's flushed cheek. Kurt looked up, looking like a deer in headlights for a moment, before… leaning into the touch a little? Was that what he was doing? Puck decided that was it.

"You know," Puck said, cocking his head to the right, just to get a better look at the boy in front of him. "You are rrreally… rreally… rrrreaally beautiful."

Kurt's eyes widened even more, but this time Puck had a feeling it was more from disbelief than horror. "Puck, you're drunk," Kurt said, stating the complete obvious.

"Drrunk…?" Puck still hated his damn slurring, - "Only drunk on you, baby…"

Kurt rolled his eyes in an "Oh-my-god-this-guy-is-crazy"-way and Puck could feel him trying to walk away from under his arm. He stopped him by pulling him tighter.

"Y'know," he said, every single boundary that once existed within him now completely vanished, - "You are shuch a cool dude… You are shmart and funny and sho, sho, sho pretty…"

Puck thought Kurt looked slightly uncomfortable or confused to say the least, but he just had to let this out.

"Noah…," Kurt began very vaguely, - "You're straight. You know that, right?"

Puck rolled his eyes. "Being attracted to you doeshn't make me gay, Kurt…"

"It sure as hell doesn't make you straight either," Kurt laughed. Puck loved his laugh. It was so thrilling, and happy, and beautiful, and everything that was good in this world.

"If that's the case," Puck said in his most seductive voice, leaning closer to the smaller boy. Intimidatingly close, he assumed, but he was too drunk to care, as usual, - "I guess I'm a little gay for you then…"

He was standing so close he literally could see the chills on Kurt's flawless skin. Holy crap, he thought, - what the fuck have I done? Had he just stood right there, on that very spot, flirting with Kurt Hummel? The thought made him want to run away, but he wasn't capable of running.

Why did he even end up beside Hummel anyways? Now he remembered! "On a more serious note…," he slurred, trying to look as serious as possible, - "I was just wondering…"

Kurt looked at him with a light of suspicion in his eyes, wondering what was next to come. A booty call, maybe. Would be quite likely.

"I was just wondering…," Puck began again, feeling more needy-girl-drunk than Rachel at the moment, and that was saying something, seeing how she was hanging all over Finn, - "If you would be even sweeter and more awesome than you already are, and give me a ride home tonight…"

He stopped before having spoiled the sentence, as he saw Kurt's face becoming even more confused. "No! I didn't mean it that way… I meant a ride in your car… Not on your…"

"I know!" Kurt's voice was rushed, and Puck couldn't really blame him, - "And yes. I will drive you home, but only because you are drunker than my aunt Mildred and if there's one thing I hate in this world it's people who drive when drunk." His voice was harsher now, as if he was hiding something.

No, Puck wasn't deep or anything, but Kurt was a pretty obvious, readable guy when he didn't care too much about hiding his feelings.

That was pretty much the first time Puck had ever heard Kurt say the word "hate", and he tried to pull himself together the best he could, just to figure out why he suddenly became so impulsive.

He turned and realized he had finally let Kurt out of his grip. He looked around the room, but the boy was nowhere inside. He walked up the stairs the best he could, and found Hummel sitting on the living room couch, staring blankly ahead of him. Puck's vision was a little blurry, but he was sure the boy's eyes were far too bright at the moment.

Quietly, as if not to wake up a sleeping baby, he sat down beside the boy, and laid an awkward arm around him. "Was I…?" he began, again not sure how to put his words, - "Was I too blunt with you?"

Kurt wiped at his eyes the same way he did that night at Breadstix on Valentine's Day, and then he gave away the same "lying-about-everything-being-OK" chuckle. "Yes," he said truthfully, - "you were."

He smiled as if joking, but Puck was too tipsy to notice. "Aw, I'm sorry…," he said, rubbing Kurt's back in a clumsy, but comforting manner.

Kurt shook his head, and gave away a weak smile. "It's not that, though."

Puck frowned slightly, and looked probably way too intensely into the boy's eyes. "What is it then?"

Kurt let out a heavy sigh, and said in a voice, not that much louder than a whisper: "It wasn't you Noah… As a matter of fact, you being brave enough, even though you are drunk and won't remember it tomorrow morning, to even touch me and speak to me like that, like I am a normal human being and not just some creature that you can catch the gay from, that meant…"

He stopped, not really knowing if he should say it. He decided to, for once, let his boundaries down. Hell, Puck would probably not remember this tomorrow anyway. "It meant something, you know?"

He looked at the other boy with a questioning expression, and Puck nodded hesitantly, trying to comprehend what Kurt had just said. It had meant something. Something he had done had meant something to him! That was pretty much the news of the year so far!

"Really?" was all Puck could get out, before going back to the primary question: "But then what are you so upset about?"

It sounded a little too questioning. As if he thought Hummel was whining over nothing. Crap, he had really not meant it to sound that way! Kurt was a really strong dude, actually. Oh, be it, Kurt didn't seem to bother anyway.

"It's my mom," he said silently.

Puck leaned back on the couch, relaxing a little. He knew Kurt's mom died when he was very little. For whatever reason, he suddenly felt that the "only one parent to raise them"-thing applied to both of them. Even though Puck's father wasn't dead, at least not that Puck knew, he had still left him and his family. For good. And he did it on purpose. Even though Kurt must've had it worse than him in every possible way in that department, he was mourning a parent too. He could relate.

Wow! Where did that freaking deepness come from? He clearly had it in him when he'd been drinking! He should drink more often… Or maybe not.

"What about her?" was the only thing he managed saying, pushing the boy a little further.

Another heavy sigh was given.

"She died in a car accident when I was very young. I was eight years old. The man who ki…"

He stopped himself from being too dramatic, - "The man who was driving the car that hit hers, had been drinking. I woke up the morning after, getting the news from my dad and the two policemen that were in our house."

"The man who killed her," Puck confirmed, - "The man who killed your mother had been drinking. He was an asshole. He drove. You have every right to blame him for everything."

Kurt gave Puck a look as if believing the other boy had gone insane. "Really?"

Puck nodded. "Yeah. I can't forgive my father for leaving my mom, Sarah and me behind, and you shouldn't feel obliged to forgive the guy who killed your mom." He stopped, and then he said: "I'm sorry, by the way. About your mom."

Kurt's face softened, and a smile appeared on his (oh-so-soft-looking) lips. "Thanks Noah," he smiled, his whispering voice still hanging there, - "And I'm sorry too… Your dad leaving you all and everything behind… It must've been hard."

Puck didn't really like being questioned about his feelings, but having Kurt caring for him this way, sort of made every bad feeling he had inside a little easier to cope with. Therefore he just nodded, and said: "Yeah, it was."

They sat on the couch for a little while, sharing a partly awkward and partly comfortable silence, before Puck rose up, letting his hands hit his lap in a defeated manner, realizing he was still not able to walk properly, as he said: " Come on, let's get home. This party won't turn out to be better than this anyway."

Kurt nodded, grabbed his keys, which he had placed wisely at the top of one of the Berrys' many book shelves, and walked outside with Puck slumping behind him.

When they approached and unlocked the car, Kurt's facial expression turned from satisfied to shocked, in a heartbeat: "Oh my god!" he exclaimed.

"What?" Puck asked, rubbing his forehead. His head was already starting to hurt, and he would like to go home, go to bed, and not puke in Kurt's car. That would be too freaking humiliating if he did that! He didn't want to think about it.

"I promised to take Blaine home if he had too many drinks, and judging by the way he was showing his tongue down Rachel's throat tonight, he definitely did."

Puck chuckled, before sitting down inside Kurt's car, resting his head against the window, and falling asleep for a few seconds…

… UNTIL a very, very, very drunken Blaine Anderson approached the backseat, and yelled loudly enough to wake up not only Lima, but the entirety of Ohio in general: "PUCKERMAN! IT'S SO, SO, SO COOL TO SEE YOU! WHERE YOU BEEN ALL NIGHT?"

"Uh…," was the only thing Puck could answer, - "I guess I was down in the basement with you…?"

"No, no, no, no…," Blaine said, shaking his head in a way that made it look more like heavy head-banging than a normal head-shaking, - "That's not what I was talking about… You were upstairs with Kurt. What did you guys do?"

"Dude! Chill!" Puck said determined, enjoying the moment of for once in his lifetime being the sane one in a situation, - "We were upstairs for like, five minutes, talking to each other."

"Oh," Blaine said, causing a satisfied grin to appear on Puck's chin. He had shut him up.

Kurt got into the driver's seat of his car, and pulled out of the Berry household. When they were about halfway to Puck's house, Blaine, who had been surprisingly quiet during the ride, (they actually thought he had fallen asleep), opened his mouth: "Kurt?"

Kurt let out a defeated sigh. "Yes?" he asked, as friendly as he possibly could.

"Why can't I be in the front?"

Puck gave away a chuckle, and Kurt gave him a look that said: It's not funny!

Kurt gave Blaine a glance in the mirror, and said: "See that beautiful house over there?" He pointed at a high-class, ginormous house in a very neat-looking, white neighborhood which they had just approached. This was so not Lima Heights Adjacent and it was totally lame.

Blaine had to sit up a little straighter to see what Kurt was pointing at. "Yeah?"

Kurt nodded. "If you sit in the front, you will suddenly insist on driving the car, and even though I will tell you that you can't, you will probably try either way. And then we are gonna end up crashing our car into that beautiful house, and that would be a shame to ruin such a clever piece of architecture, don't you think?"

Blaine had to think about that for a few minutes, before he spoke up again: "But Kurt…?" he whined, - "It's not only the house that will be ruined, we will probably also be pretty ruined…"

Kurt rolled his eyes until the point where he could see his brain. "My point exactly, Blaine."

They didn't hear more from him during the ride, and when they finally reached the Puckerman household, he had finally fallen asleep.

Puck was far less drunk now, and he wasn't slurring nearly as much anymore. Another comfortably awkward silence appeared between the two boys, before Kurt said as politely and diplomatic as he could: "Thanks for a nice party."

Puck nodded, gave him a genuine smile, and nodded. It wasn't his ordinary badass-grin, but a real, Noah-kind-of smile. Kurt liked that smile. "Same," the mohawked boy replied

Another short break appeared between the two of them.

"Can I ask you something?" Kurt asked, hesitantly.

"Shoot."

Kurt took a deep breath. "Did you mean any of that stuff…? You know… That you said earlier?"

"You mean, before you walked upstairs?" Puck asked, surprising himself not feeling awkward about that situation. Kurt hadn't minded, had he?

Kurt nodded slowly. "Yeah?"

Now Puck gave away his Puckzilla-badass-grin again. He didn't really know why he did it, but sometimes people do the weirdest of things just because they are allowed to without having the universe turning on them. And what Noah Puckerman did right then and there, was leaning forward and kissing Kurt Hummel softly on the cheek.

"What do you think, Princess?" he whispered somewhat hoarsely, before getting out of his car, and walking with not-so-clumsy-anymore steps to his house.

Kurt sat for a while in his car outside Noah Puckerman's house. He wasn't really sure what had just happened. He knew that Noah and Puck were two very different people, but on the other hand; if Blaine could be straight when drunk, Puck could probably be gay when drunk.

But then again, Puck hadn't been drunk just a few minutes earlier, in his car, when he had kissed him. On the cheek, fair enough, but it was still a soft, sweet kiss that felt almost… Romantic?

He was about to slap himself. He couldn't be crushing on Puck! The person he could crush on, who at least was within his league and not straight, was Blaine. He should work on getting that relationship to work, not wasting his time crushing on Puck.

Puck was straight. Strictly so. And he would probably not remember this tomorrow either way. Tomorrow, the night of Kurt Hummel's life would only be a faded memory.

But Puck remembered, and he didn't even try to hide the fact that he did. He and Kurt talked a lot more now, even though they still saw each other very rarely. They had each other's phone numbers, and they communicated a lot more over Facebook as well. To top it all off, Puck also had started visiting Finn on a more regular basis, and Kurt almost dared to believe it wasn't just to play video games with Finn. Sometimes he would invite Kurt to play along with them as well.

And when Blaine started questioning his sexuality that week – probably for the second time in his life – Puck was the one who met up with the hobbit at the gym and tried to knock some sense into him. Not physically, of course, only mentally. Puck was a badass in that department as well. He pretty much educated the guy on what drunkenness could do to you.

But Puck was an exception there, clearly. He wasn't only attracted to Kurt when he was drunk. Totally not. He didn't want to question his sexuality, and he sure as hell didn't want to put a label on it. He liked who he liked. End of story. And whom he liked at the moment, just randomly happened to be one Kurt Hummel.

And that was the reality of the situation.

A/N: I'm sorry that Kurt was a little too rough or too quick to judge drunk drivers here, hope I didn't offend anyone. The thing is, my best friend's parents both lost their lives in a car accident, caused by drunk driving on the others' part, when she was four years old (with them in the accident). She is exactly the way Kurt is in this story about the issue. She claims there's no excuse whatsoever, and I can't really blame her for thinking so. So I thought Kurt's stance on the subject was nothing short of reliable.

Thanks for all the reviews, guys! Hope you like the story so far! I will try to finish a new chapter next week!