A/N: Howdy! How's things?

I know it's been a little while and I'm sorry. Things are so hectic at the moment, but by the end of the month, I'll have finished my exams and I have a beautifully long time to devotedly write then I promise :) Plus, stupid me over here has decided to start new ffs before finishing old one's so... (I've just started an Inkheart one, so if you're interested, check that one out :D)

Disclaimer: I love glee, but I don't own it, which is sad for me, but good for everyone else because I would have ruined it by now lol ;)

Please review! Reviews= Happy me! I love reading them, and I really think they have helped me develop as a writer, so yeah, please do it! Any suggestions/ideas/criticism/ song suggestions etc etc etc just let me know via review or PM :)

Thanks again!

xoloveJBox

"I'm really glad that you came tonight." Puck told Nikki sincerely as they continued to sit, completely content, simply looking at each other.
"Me too." Nikki agreed, wrinkling her nose as she grinned. Nikki's phone began to vibrate in her bag, and slipped it out, looked at the screen and returned it again.
"You aren't going to answer it?" Puck asked.
Nikki shook her head. "No. I'm here with you, and it won't be important."
The distraction forgotten, they fell into easy, relaxed conversation.
"Your mom." Puck started "She's, err...nice."
Nikki laughed at his choice of words. "Please don't take it to heart." she pleaded, seeming to know exactly what he was talking about. "She just worries that I don't understand what I'm getting into."
"Do you?" he replied, a totally serious look on his face.
"Do I what?" Nikki asked, not sure she was fully following the conversation.
"Know what you're getting into?"
"Yes." She answered simply.
They started talking about their experiences of growing up, and in the space of thirty minutes; Nikki's phone rang six times. Each time, she grew more and more irritated by it, jabbing the button to cut off the call with increasing amounts of force each time. He could see lines of frustration furrowing in Nikki's brow, deepening every time the phone jumped around inside her bag.
When five minutes finally passed with no interruptions, Puck saw Nikki physically relax, and so he did too. However, the tension did not stay diffused for long when a voice approached them.
"Ignoring me will get you nowhere Nik." it said, and when Puck turned his head to identify it, he saw a tall, blond haired teen, maybe a year or so older than Puck was himself.
Nikki groaned.
"What are you doing here?" she hissed irritably, throwing death glares in the other boy's direction.
"Mum told me to pick you up." he replied casually, shrugging his shoulders. Puck knew then who it must be, if the accent hadn't already told him. This was Nikki's older brother, Tom.
"Yes, in three hours!" Nikki told him, fists clenched and looking like she was ready to throw a few punches.
"Hey, I didn't know this was where you were." Tom lied, not bothering to hide his smirk.
"You're such an arse Tom." Nikki muttered, rolling her eyes. Puck wasn't exactly sure he knew what an 'arse' was, but it didn't sound particularly good. He could see Nikki throwing evil glances at her brother, and he was sure that if she could have shot tiny daggers from her pupils at that moment, she would have.

"I know." Tom shrugged dismissively. "Anyway, I'm going to leave you kids to yourselves and chill out over here."

They watched as Tom sauntered away and parked himself at a nearby table.

"I'm really sorry Noah." Nikki whispered uncomfortably, as she leant forward to block her brother's view of what she was saying. "Please, just ignore him."

"What's his deal anyway?" Puck asked, keeping tone equally as low.

"Up until a year ago, I didn't speak to him for two years." She explained in response "I guess he's just making sure I can't do that again."

"Why didn't you talk to him?" Puck questioned, wandering what Tom could have done to provoke that kind of response from his sister.
"I didn't like him."

The simplicity of her answer would have made Puck laugh, had it not been for the totally serious expression on her face. He kind of wanted to ask about it, but he could tell that Nikki didn't want to talk about it, so he dropped the subject.

They carried on their evening as if nothing was out of the ordinary, except Puck's eyes kept flitting over to Tom. Nikki seemed perfectly content to pretend that her brother wasn't there, but then, Puck thought, if she didn't speak to him for two years, she was probably good at it. However, despite the fact that Puck made an attempt to keep his glances subtle, Tom Winters didn't make the same effort. He made it perfectly clear that he was watching.

However, after a while, Puck found Nikki too enticing to ignore. He soon found that he wasn't paying any attention to Tom because he couldn't keep his gaze from her face, which glowed radiantly in the flicker of the single candle between them. As they ate their meal they chatted easily, and when Nikki laughed, to Puck it was like a song that he would never get bored of, that he could hear over and over again. He loved spending time with her, and he would have given anything in that moment for time to stop and encapsulate them there forever. It was cheesy, and Puck knew that if he'd heard any other guy saying it, he would have laughed but it was true and he was tired of trying to hide it anymore.

"What would you say about not keeping us a secret anymore?" he said, faking casualness.

"You want to tell people about you?" Nikki asked, making sure that she was hearing what she thought she was.

"Well, we don't have to specifically tell people, we could just not make an effort to hide it anymore." He suggested. Nikki remained silent for a minute, and Puck didn't know what to say.

"We don't have to," he added. "You know, if you don't want to."

"No. No, I want to." Nikki answered quickly with a grin, worried that he would change his mind if she didn't tell him immediately.

When they were done and getting ready to leave, Nikki went off to use the bathroom. When he was sure that she couldn't see him, Puck wondered over to Tom's table. The older boy looked at him expectantly, but didn't say anything.

"I really like her you know." Puck told him seriously. Tom didn't look at Puck when he responded.

"I know you do." He said simply. "I don't like it, but I know you did."

Neither boy said anything else, and before Puck returned to his table, he slid out a twenty dollar bill and placed it on the table in front of Tom, silently offering to pay the bill for Tom's meal too. It wasn't that he thought he could buy his way in to Tom accepting him, but he wanted to show that he could be a nice guy. Yeah, he liked to shave his hair into a Mohawk and where leather jackets. And yes, he had been a real jerk to girls in the past, but Tom didn't know that, and it was different with Nikki. With other girls, he'd always found his attention wondering after a little while, but not with Nikki. She kept him on his toes, always asking what curveball she was going to toss him next, and he liked that.
"Do you want to go out somewhere tomorrow afternoon?" Nikki asked as they walked along. Nikki was determined to spend as much time with Puck as possible, and she certainly wasn't going to let her brother spoil her night, so instead of going straight home, they decided that they would go for a stroll. The evening air was warm and light and Nikki wrapped a hand around Puck's arm as they walked, comfortably in the close proximity.
"Whatever. It's up to you." he shrugged feigning indifference. It wasn't that he didn't care. He could feel his stomach doing a little dance at the thought of spending more time with Nikki, and he had never experienced that before. However, he could feel Tom's eyes on them, and Puck didn't want Nikki's older brother to think that he was too eager with his sister. Usually Puck wasn't fazed by older brothers. He was normally bigger and tougher, and even if he wasn't, he was good at faking it, and that was generally enough. But things were different now. There were no similarities between his feelings for Nikki and what he had done with other girls before. It mattered to him now what Tom thought, because it mattered to Nikki. He was prepared to do anything to keep her happy, and if that meant pretended to be intimidated by the fact that her older brother was only a few feet away, so be it.
At his answer and over exaggerated shrug, Nikki laughed; a cheerful, melodic sound.
"You know Noah, your disguise doesn't work as well as you think it does." she told him with a knowing, sideways grin. Usually he hated when people called him Noah. But it was different with her. She could call him anything she wanted with her arioso voice. He loved it. No, scratch that: he loved her.
"What disguise?" he asked, wondering what she was talking about.
"The one where you pretend not to care. Like you couldn't care less what the rest of the world is doing."

Taking him by surprise, Nikki stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek softly. She threw a goodbye over her shoulder as she tottered over to her brother, leaving him, once again, completely astounded by everything about her.