Puck walked into the dining hall and grabbed his usual giant mug of coffee (he always took his own Spiderman one with him) and plate of scrambled eggs and toast, before looking around to decide where to sit. He saw Rachel, already seated at a table and there was plenty of space around her, so he walked over. He needed to talk to her anyway.
"Morning," he mumbled, not quite awake, as he sat down on the bench next to her.
Rachel was nursing her morning coffee, glancing around at the other students filling the cafeteria. Most of them were avoiding her like the plague and she didn't blame them. She just wished some people would try kindness instead of brute force for once. How are was it to try to make a friend? It annoyed her to no end, but she didn't dwell on those thoughts.
When Puck sat down next to her, she turned to greet him. "Good morning, Noah. Ready to face another day?" she asked, sounding mock excited and rolling her eyes.
"Ask me again, after this has kicked in" he raised his mug, indicating that he was talking about his coffee. "How're you doin'?" Puck asked, giving her a bleary-eyed half smile, before biting into a piece of toast.
Rachel chuckled and shook her head at the boy. "I'm all right. I'm still catching up on the material for my courses, but I think if I keep up with the schedule I've made for myself I should be able to be all caught up by the end of next week," she shrugged and took another sip of her coffee. "How about you?"
"Wiped out and groggy?" He made it sound like some sort of question. "Sam set his futon on fire last night, and I had to go and be all nice and shit, and let him bunk with me." He took another bite of food and chewed slowly. "Dude moves around in his sleep, like it's his job, or something," he frowned.
Rachel's eyebrows lifted, but she said nothing. "Sounds like a pleasant night. Aren't you just the chivalrous mentor, hmmm?" she smirked and rested her chin in her hand.
Puck shrugged. "He'd only have bitched, if I'd made him sleep on the floor, and I wouldn't have gotten any more sleep than I did, anyway." He took a sip of his coffee. "But I'm damn well stealing him a mattress from the infirmary tonight" he told her.
"I see," Rachel nodded, but gave Puck a strange look. "Well, good luck acquiring another mattress for the Human Torch. My evening will consist of more reading." She rolled her neck to release the kinks and took another sip of her morning brew.
Sam walked into the cafeteria, looking like he'd just rolled out of bed. In actual fact, that wasn't too far removed from the truth. He'd slept better than he had in months and hadn't heard the alarm clock or even really stirred when his roommate had tried to wake him.
When he'd finally woken he'd only had time to change his sweatpants for jeans, brush his teeth and shove his sneakers on, before rushing upstairs, worried about missing breakfast.
He spotted Puck sitting next to some pretty brunette, and he found himself feeling a little jealous. He rolled his eyes at himself, and how ridiculous that was, before walking over to them, and sitting next to Puck.
"S'up?" he mumbled, greeting them both.
"Hmmm, reading... Sounds awesome," he said sarcatically. "I might just kick him out, so that he has to move into the infirmary," Puck joked.
"Oh my God! It lives!" He elbowed Sam in the ribs, when he sat down. "Sam, this is Rachel. The girl who doesn't appreciate having to use the bunker after you... Dude, did you look in the mirror yet?"
Rachel looked up at the newcomer. He seemed a little out of it still, but generally harmless. Hearing Puck's comment about the bunker, her thoughts clicked into place. "Ah, if it isn't our pyrokinetic. Please try not to light anything on fire before I leave. I had to deal with the smell in the bunker during yesterday's training," she made a face before putting on a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Sam. "
The brunette thought about holding out her hand to the boy, but decided against it. She could easily stop him if he went out of control, but she'd rather not have to deal with burns on her hands if she could avoid it.
"Not really, no," he admitted with a shrug.
Sam looked a little sheepish. "Yeah, uhm, sorry about that," he leant over Puck, extending his hand to her. "It's nice to meet you too," he said, with a smile. "I don't mind swapping with you, but I promise you, there'll be no more gas in there because of me."
Puck just shook his head and reached up, to try to flatten Sam's messy hair. When he failed, he just went back to munching on his toast.
Rachel looked at the hand and then raised an eyebrow at the boy. "You seem very nice, Sam, so forgive me for not shaking your hand, but considering the bunker and then finding out you lit your mattress on fire I hope you understand my hesitation," she fixed him with an apologetic half-smile. "Thank you for swapping training times with me though."
Sam blinked at Rachel a few times and dropped his hand. "Yeah, no that's cool," he frowned in confusion. "Not really quite sure what refusing to use my powers, or dropping a cigarette has to do with anything, but it's totally your call."
He didn't blame her for not wanting anything to do with him. He wouldn't if he were her. She'd obviousy heard about what he'd done. That meant everybody knew.
He stood up. "Well, it was nice talking to you. I guess I'd better go," he said. "So I'll see you at four," he told Puck, moving to leave.
Puck gave Rachel the death glare, before moving to catch Sam's wrist. "Hey," he said, abnormally softly. "Sit. You haven't even eaten yet."
Rachel just shrugged, nonplussed by the glare. How was she supposed to know that the blonde boy was just a clumsy oaf? "My apologies for jumping to conclusions. Please stay and eat with your bedmate. I need to go grab my books before class begins and I would hate to be tardy," she nodded to both of the boys and stood.
Taking a final swig of her coffee, she tossed the paper cup in the appropriate bin and began to make her way out of the cafeteria. At least this misunderstanding hadn't ended violently. That was always a plus in her mind.
Sam stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes, trying to get his emotions back under control when he felt Puck's fingers close around his wrist. He kept his head turned away from them, so they couldn't see his face.
"I'm ok, just let me go," he mumbled.
"See you later, Berry," he called after Rachel, but he hadn't taken his eyes away from Sam.
"Sit," he repeated, in just as uncharacteristically gentle a voice, as the first time. "Please?" He risked tugging at Sam's arm, pulling him back down, to sit next to him on the bench. He was closer than before, but Puck didn't mind.
Sam didn't fight against Puck pulling him back down into his seat. He just let him, and continued to silently stare at anything but his roommate/mentor/friend/maybe more?/whatever. His gaze finally settled on his hand, which he'd rested in his lap.
"What's wrong?" Puck asked, frowning, as he let go of Sam's wrist. "This is because Rachel didn't want to shake your hand?"
"N-nothing's wrong," he lied unconvincingly, shaking his head. "But there isn't any time for breakfast. They're done serving. So I might as well go." He was still staring into his lap the whole time he was talking.
Puck cast a glance at the serving counter. Sam was right, they had ceased serving. It was 8:15, which meant there were only fifteen more minutes left of breakfast.
"Here," Puck said, sliding what was left on his plate - most of his eggs and a slice of toast - over to Sam. "Eat. And tell me what's bothering you." He picked up his coffee and began gulping at it. He wasn't awake enough to keep being nice to his confusingly depressed roommate, for long.
Sam frowed in confusion for a moment, when Puck's breakfast appeared in front of him. He shook his head. "No... No, dude. That's yours." He shook his head again.
"Wrong," Puck told him, leaving no more room for argument. "It was mine. I'm done, and you're hungry. Eat." He hadn't finished, but he had eaten some of it, and something about Sam made him want to make sure he was ok.
"Now what's on your mind. I'm your mentor. That makes me like your priest or something. I need to know what's going on in that noggin of yours, or this..." He gestured with his hand, in the small space between them, but not quite sure what he was refering to, himself. "... Ain't gonna work. So confess."
Sam nodded, carefully picking up the toast. "Uh... thanks man," he said awkwardly. He gingerly started nibbling at the toast, as if Puck might turn around and slug him, if he enjoyed it too much.
Sam swallowed his bite of food, and sighed. Time to fess up about his past. Puck was going to hate him now. He wouldn't want anything to do with him, just like Rachel, and then he'd ask for Sam to be moved into another room. The thought made him even sadder. He liked rooming with Puck. He even sorta liked the guy himself, when he wasn't being a jerk, just for the hell of it. He was fun, and easy to hang out with, and clearly a lot kinder than he pretended to be. He'd proven that by being so willing to share things (except his booze. He'd made it abundantly clear, that was the only thing Sam couldn't have, more or less right after letting him into their room) and actually caring how he felt. It was gonna suck, losing the only person who'd even given him the time of day, around here. But he was used to being lonely, surrounded by people who just don't care, so he answered Puck's question.
"Nobody wants me around," he looked back down into his lap, not able to look at Puck. "Obviously somebody found out what I am, and now everybody knows." He said, not realizing how vague, what he was saying, was. "I-I thought things would be different here, but I guess having abilities and what I did, aren't really the same, are they?" He went silent, before realizing he'd yet to explain to Puck, how badly he'd screwed up. "I... My mom, there was a..." he began stumbling through his words.
Puck laid a hand on Sam's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "It's okay, dude. You don't have to say it, I already know... They gave me your file," he amended, in a half-truth. "I'm... I'm sorry about your mom. That's gotta be rough." He wasn't going to patronize the guy by telling him how it wasn't his fault, and that accidents happen. He was sure he'd already been told that several times. It's not like it would help.
"Nobody else knows, I swear. Rachel was just a bit nervous of your ability because the bunker stank of smoke, yesterday. It's why she thought you can't control it. After you left, I torched the gas I'd poured on the floor" he explained. "I didn't want that to happen by accident, if I didn't clean it up good."
Sam ate in silence for a while, as he processed what he'd just been told. He couldn't help but to think of his mom. He missed her terribly, and the guilt of knowing that the rest of his family missed her just as much, because of him, was almost too much to cope with. He felt like he was going to crumble into dust, and blow away. The scariest part of all of that, was that he found himself not really minding the idea much.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Puck. The other boy was looking at him - completely unguarded - with eyes full of the kind of deep concern that Sam could tell, he didn't want people to know he was even capable of. If questioned about it, he'd probably just try to pass it off as pity, but he could see that - for what reason, he didn't know - Puck genuinely cared.
"Thanks," was all Sam could manage, without his voice crackling.
"You're welcome, Dude," he replied. He wasn't sure what he'd just been thanked for, but he didn't recall doing anything for Sam that he actually minded doing, so the statement was true enough.
He swigged down the rest of his coffee. "Don't ever feel weird about coming to me with this shit, okay?" He smacked him amiably on the arm and stood up. "It's my job, and stuff."
Sam nodded. "I'll bear that in mind," he affirmed, when the other boy stood up. "So I'll see you later?"
"Well, it'd be pretty hard to avoid each other," he joked, picking up his mug. "Training's at four then, and I might see you at lunch, anyway. Later," he smiled at him before turning and walking away.