Puck was lounging on the couch in the otherwise empty common room. Class was in session and he was waiting for Santana to show up for training. He'd let himself slip into invisibility, as often tended to happen when he wasn't focusing. It wasn't like he couldn't control it, but a lot of the time, he just didn't need to. So he just didn't bother.
Santana double-checked her makeup in her compact mirror as she approached the common room - which she admitted to herself was ridiculous, since she was going to train, but still. It was Puck, and she wanted to look decent.
She was distracted by her thoughts, and it allowed her power to act in a wide area around her - which meant that when she entered the common room, she knocked out Puck's invisibility without realizing. "Hey!" she smiled at him. "I'm here!"
"Hey Lopez," he greeted her with a smile. "Did you mean to knock out my powers?" he asked pointlessly. He knew she hadn't.
"Uh," she briefly considered lying, but figured he'd probably see right through it. "Not...really?" she bit her lip. "Sorry. I wasn't paying attention." She clamped down on her power, fairly certain she'd reigned it in. Of course, Puck was really distracting, but she was pretty sure.
Puck shook his head and chuckled. "It's ok," he said, pulling his leg off the other side of the couch so she could sit. "It's not like you can harm me with your ability" he pointed out. "What's got you so distracted?" he asked.
Santana took a seat on the couch, trying not to notice how close she was to him, and blushed a little. "Just anxious to get started again. I didn't get enough practice over the summer, so I'm sure it's going to take a while to get good at this again."
She wasn't even sure whether she meant training or dealing with her crush on Puck, so she tried to find something else to talk about instead. "I was kinda hoping her stuff would be in our room when I got back, you know? That she'd have come back without saying anything." She looked at him and winced - she knew (or at least had heard the rumors) of what had gone on between Puck and Quinn, and he must be hurting far more than she was about the other girl's absence. "Sorry," she shook her head. "Forget I said anything."
"Nah," he dismissed the idea that she'd have lost much control over her ability. "S'like riding a bike," he said, giving her shoulder a little squeeze. "Promise." He turned to face her fully, sitting indian style on the couch.
"Who?" he asked, pretending that he'd forgotten who she could be talking about. "Oh, Fabray? I wouldn't hold your breath, or anything. She's not coming back." He shrugged, feigning nonchalance, and shook his head with a frown. "No need to be sorry... Come on, let's do this."
He cleared his mind, and allowed himself to fade out. "Ok. Go."
She tried not to blush even more when he touched her, and wished she could be invisible like him for a second. But she took a deep breath and turned to face him as well.
He knew who she was talking about - and it was bothering him more than he'd let on to her, but she wasn't about to push the issue with him. Instead she did as he asked. Trying to remember everything he'd taught her in her first year, she reached out with her mind.
There it was - a glowing light was the best way she could envision it. She raised her hand and pictured her thumb and forefinger closing around the light, snuffing it out. She brought them close together, shutting her eyes with the effort. The light flickered, but didn't go out. Puck faded in and out of visibility, and she frowned, letting go again.
"Why is this so much harder when I'm trying to do it?" she ran a hand through her dark hair. "When I'm not even trying, I can shut off everyone around me. But when I'm really focused, it takes so much more work!"
"Because you're focusing," he replied, his voice seemingly coming from nowhere. "It's a lot harder when you're trying control it enough to train it on a specific person... Here, try it this way. Gimme your hand." Without waiting for her to do that, he reached out and took it in his own. She started to fade out too, a little slower than he had. "See if that helps." Neither of them were quite sure how her power worked and he figured that it was worth a shot, to do something to try to connect her to his power.
Santana wasn't sure whether the fireworks in her head were because he'd taken her hand or because she'd plugged directly into his power, but either way she gasped. "Oh my god," she whispered. The glowing light she'd been trying to put out was like an inferno now, and she actually giggled at how it felt.
"I can do anything like this," she said wonderingly. "Watch." She made his arm visible, then his leg. Then she faded those out and faded his head into view but nothing else. It was dizzying, and she finally pulled her hand away from his so she could breathe again.
"Wow," she was flushed and breathing hard. "That was awesome. I could see every bit of power around you, and play with as much of it as I wanted. That's incredible, I didn't know - I had no idea it could be like that!"
He watched her fade back in and then let go of his invisibility, fading back in, himself. "Eventually, you'll be able to do that, standing on the other side of a football field. I swear." He grinned, before his face fell. "There was a teacher here, before you arrived. She could do that, no problem. You'd probably already be about halfway there, if she was training you," he said. It was his way of apologizing, for not being a very experienced mentor.
"Hey," she took his hand again, ignoring how good it felt. "You're a good teacher, Puck - that's the coolest thing I've ever felt, and I never would have figured it out on my own. We'll work together, right? And we'll get me there eventually."
She noticed she was rubbing his knuckle with the pad of her thumb and pulled her hand back. "Who was the teacher?" she asked, trying to make casual conversation. "Where did she go?"
"You're just saying that, so I don't just send you back off to St James. There are other AC mentors in the school, you know," he joked. "Yeah, ok" he smiled at her. "Together."
Puck frowned when she pulled her hand away, completely oblivious to the over-friendliness of her gesture. "Miss Holiday," he replied. "She wasn't here for long. Said she liked to keep moving, or something. I miss her. She was fun... and super hot." He smirked.
"I'm thinking of trying to get Schue to change his mind, about having a dance, this week," he said, conversationally. "I'm not holding out much hope, after the whole thing where a bunch of us guys got wasted and started doing a strip show on the stage," he laughed. "I'm so glad at least the younger students had been sent to bed by then. So humiliating." He shook his head. "Would you wanna go?"
"Well, Jesse is a bit...abrasive," she admitted, "but I'm not just saying it. You're good at this - and the only way either of us is going to get better is if we work together at it," she smiled.
"Well, I'll have to look her up in the yearbook so I can decide that for myself," Santana laughed. "I get that," she nodded, "the not wanting to stay in one place thing. It's not for everybody."
Her heart stopped briefly in her chest - and then her brain kicked in admonishingly. He's not asking you out, estúpido. He's asking if you'd want to go to a dance. "Sure," she agreed enthusiastically. "A dance sounds like lots of fun - even without the strip show," she added, only partly joking.
"Well," he said. "That's not strictly true... I tossed out my class schedule today, and took on six other charges this morning," he explained. "I have a pyrokinetic who doesn't like fire, a telepath who doesn't like to show the hell up, a molecular immobilizer who thinks I'm trying to kill him... I can't wait to start training the others." He rolled his eyes.
Puck scratched the back of his neck. "Trust me. I get that too. I'm stuck here. But I've been here too long, and as much as I want to, I don't think I'd know how to function, if I left. Ya know? I don't have a single memory that isn't of this place. I'm the epitome of sheltered"
"I said it was humiliating, not that I won't do it again," he laughed at his own joke.
"Six?" she blinked. "Wow - okay, I'll rephrase, the only way I'm going to get better is to work with you. You'll have lots of practice without me," she laughed. "I'm not even going to ask about the pyro, because that's just confusing. You'd think if you can create the stuff you wouldn't be afraid of it."
"I think you'd surprise yourself," she assured him. "You might be sheltered, but that doesn't mean you're not smart. You could figure stuff out, and if not you could always, like, turn invisible and rob a bank or something." She grinned.
"Well, save me a front row seat if that's going to happen again," she said before she could stop herself.
Oh my god. Oh my GOD, you actually said that out loud! Estúpido! She blushed to the roots of her hair and looked away.
"Yeah," he said. "I'm going to have to do some digging to find out what his deal is... I think I might have to steal some files, this evening" he said, trying to make it sound like he was joking.
"I don't know if I'd even want to go anywhere" he admitted. "This place is home, even if it does get a little stifling... At least I've gotten out of classes, this year."
He figured she was joking, just as he was. "Front and center," he promised, winking at her, before standing up with a stretch. "You wanna keep practicing your ability, or go get some exercise?"
"Sounds very Mission Impossible-esque. Except Tom Cruise couldn't turn himself invisible," she laughed softly.
"I get that - I mean, not, you know, the same way, but I know what you mean about home. I still miss Cali sometimes. At least there were more Spanish speakers around, you know? Sometimes when I call Mom I feel so rusty at it."
She sighed with relief when she realized that he thought it was a joke, but still couldn't keep from blushing when he winked at her. "Uh - I could go for a run, if you feel like," she admitted. "It's fun practicing, but getting out for some real exercise would be nice."
"Not really," he laughed. "It mostly consists of walking into Doc's office, finding and taking the files I need. Sorry that isn't as interesting."
"Usted puede hablar conmigo en español, si lo desea. Yo no sabía que se estaban volviendo tan oxidado," Puck said, a smirk pulling at his features. "Don't you dare anyone, but Doc made me try to learn a whole bunch of languages, since I was small. Spanish is one of the few that took."
"Your wish is my command," he joked as he removed his jacket, and tossed it on the couch, starting to stretch.
"Well, that sounds a bit less exciting," she chuckled. "I guess you could dress all in black or something, at least."
"You're full of surprises," she replied in Spanish with a wide grin. "But don't worry, your secret's safe with me. I'll take you up on that offer, though, it'll be good practice."
She tried not to stare at him as he stretched, stripping off her own light jacket and beginning some warm-ups of her own. "So," she made light conversation, "how's the doc, anyway? I haven't seen him since I got here."
He didn't point out how redundant his wardrobe choice was, considering the fact that he could disappear from sight, as easily as he could blink. "Totally," he smiled.
"Más sorpresas que usted puede manejar, estoy seguro." Puck winked at her again, having no idea that he was inadvertently encouraging her crush on him, with what he saw as harmless, playfulness. "Eso está bien para mí, magdalena," he shrugged as he stretched down and to the right, to touch the side of his sneaker. As he did, his shirt rode up a little, exposing the tan skin of his hip and stomach, along with it a line of fine, dark hair that disappeared into his pants."No me importa en absoluto."
"He's good," he replied, repeating the stretch, but to the left. "Busy like he is at the start of every year, but good."
Santana shivered a little, looking away to hide how much she was blushing. She was trying not to come across like some fawning little girl with a crush, but he kept making it worse. Calling her cupcake, the flash of skin - she turned slightly away under the guise of stretching, so she wasn't tempted to look and see whether his shirt repeated that trick again.
"I'll bet," she gave what she hoped was a convincingly nonchalant laugh. "Just don't be surprised if you start getting rambling phone calls in Spanish when I'm bored, then."
"Do we have a lot of new people this year? Or is it just the regular kind of busy?"
"Call me any time you want," he said, completing his last stretch. "You're not the only one that gets bored, around here."
"Pretty much just the usual," he shrugged. "There's a few new faces, but not many. Although in a school this size, I guess that makes a difference. I think we're at full capacity now... Even Finn and me have roommates now." He chuckled, knowing that she'd get how strange that idea was to him.
"You may regret offering," she laughed. "But I'll definitely be calling."
"Really?" she raised an eyebrow. "That's gotta kind of suck for you. I know how you like your space. Are they nice, at least? Your roommate?" She finished stretching and bounced on the balls of her feet.
"I don't do regret, babe," he also laughed.
"Turns out, I don't mind anywhere near as much as I always thought I would, if it ever happed. Then again, I've spent a total of two hours with the guy, so far. Sharing my space might get real old, real fast, you know?" Puck replied. "Yeah, Sam seems pretty cool. I mean not cool, cool - he's a huge dork - but nice, I guess. I'm pretty sure I like him." He wasn't quite sure what he meant by the lat part, himself. But he had a feeling he was giving something away to Santana, so he looked away, trying not to blush, or do anything else equally girly.
He clapped his hands together. "Ready?"
"I should know better by now, shouldn't I?" she grinned at him.
"I'm glad it hasn't been too bad," she nodded, "but I hope you don't get too tired of him. I'm sure the Doc could move him if you really needed him to, right?" She wasn't sure how to read his last statement - was he saying...she gave her head a little shake. That couldn't be what he meant.
"Ready," she agreed, still bouncing to keep her legs loose.
Puck almost laughed at Santana's expression. Ok, he was probably busted. "What's that face for?" He rolled his eyes. "You must be the only person in this school who didn't know that I'm..." he went quiet for a moment trying to think of a way to phrase it, without saying bisexual. He hated that word. "... all for equal opportunities. Why halve your demographic, right?"
He shook his head and led the way out of the room.
She most certainly hadn't known that. "Oh," she replied dumbly, then gave herself a mental slap. She didn't want to sound like that was an issue for her, she just hadn't known. "Sorry," she said more brightly as she followed him out of the room. "You just caught me by surprise - no, I didn't know that. How long have you known?"
He dismissed her apology with a wave of his hand. He didn't need it. "Oh, quite a while. Since I was about 12, I think. It's never really been a big deal to me." He explained, as they walked. "Upside of being so sheltered. Nobody messes with me. Ever."
"It's cool that you figured it out so early. And that you had the doc as your dad - I mean, he runs a school for Specials, he's got to be pretty cool about every part of your life, right?" She walked alongside him, silent for a minute as she thought. "I'm really glad nobody's messed with you," she admitted more quietly. "I don't like even thinking about that."
"Yeah, I'm really lucky," he acknowledged. He glanced at Santana, out of the corner of his eye, when she went quiet.
"They wouldn't fucking dare," he laughed, hooking his arm around her neck and ruffling her hair. "I'd kick their asses." He removed his hand from her head and loosened his grip on her, but didn't take his arm from around her shoulders.
"Aah, not the hair!" she cried, laughing. It was pulled back into a tight ponytail for the run anyway, so it wasn't like she really minded, she was only kidding.
Her blush was as bright as her complexion would allow as he rested his arm around her shoulders. "I-I'll bet you would," she stammered a little, covering it with a grin, "and you'd do it while you were invisible, too, so it'd work really well."
"Pfsh! Puh-lease," he said, with an indignant frown, completely insulted. "A? I wouldn't need to. And B? I don't have much integrity, but I have more than that." He didn't move his arm, though.
She bit her lip. "Sorry - I didn't mean it like that. I just meant you could do that if you, you know, if you wanted to. I didn't mean you would, or that you had to..." she trailed off. "Sorry," she tried again.
She hadn't said could she'd said would. There'd be no convincing him that she thought otherwise about him, now. Nevertheless, he pushed it aside, determined not to care what she thought of him. Caring lead to getting hurt. He knew that.
"Whatever. I'm king of the school. It's kind of a moot point."
Santana sighed. She'd clearly upset him, and that was like a punch in the stomach. But she decided to play along with his nonchalance, since the only other alternative was to just leave now that she'd hurt his feelings.
"You definitely are," she agreed, bouncing a bit higher on her toes as they reached the track. She shrugged out of his grip, feeling down but carrying on all the same. "Ready?"
"Ohnononono... Not the track. What are you, a girl?" He joked flatly, trying to get back to behaving like himself. Puck didn't get upset.
He kept walking. "We're starting at the canoe shed. Twice around the lake, to the stables and then we'll race to the back of the bunker. Sound good?"
She still felt kind of like crying, because she'd never meant to hurt his feelings. But she played along, looking jokingly down her tank top. "Well, I think I am. If not, I'm a very odd-looking boy."
She blinked - that was a good length, more than she'd expected. But she wasn't going to turn down the challenge. "Sounds like a plan," she agreed.
"No arguments there," he smirked.
"What?" Puck said when he saw the surprise on her face. "Too far? Ok, one lap around the lake then, not two. That ok?"
"No, no," she shook her head. "Just because you figured out I'm a girl doesn't mean you're going to take it easy on me. Let's go, Puckerman - I'm going to kick your ass."
Challenge accepted. And just like that, they were back on an even kilter, for the time being. "Bring it on, little girl. Race you to the canoe shed then." He said, before setting off at a jog. Trying to get her to sprint there and tire herself out, wasn't cheating, okay?
She smirked - she knew she hadn't made things right for what she'd said before, but at least they could still banter the way they had been. She took off in the direction of the canoe shed, racing ahead of him. If she'd been thinking more clearly she would have wondered why he was going so slowly, but all she saw was the challenge.
"When I beat you, you owe me a really big birthday present, you know that, right?" she tossed over her shoulder.
"Haha, don't think so, Lopez," he yelled after her. His body automatically tried to speed up, without his brain's permission, in response to the challenge. It was like he was hardwired to do that. Hid did manage to pull on the reins hard enough to slow back down, after a few seconds though.
Santana took a quick look over her shoulder and saw him speeding up, increasing her own pace in response. She began to see the flaw in her plan as her lungs started to burn a little, but she hoped if she powered through it she'd beat him to the shed. But there would be no more yelling back at him, she couldn't afford to waste her breath. She just focused on the shed, and ran.
Puck smirked when he saw her speed up even further, and kept jogging slowly along, now content to let her win the battle. He'd be the one to win the war.
Santana was sweating and her lungs were on fire, but she slapped the side of the shed triumphantly. "Ha!" she cried between deep breaths. "I win - birthday present, Puckerman, get planning! You haven't got long!"
The smirk was still firmly on Puck's face when he finally reached the shed, barely even breathing any harder than normal. "Very good," he congratulated her in a sardonic tone. "Ready to run another 4k?"
She groaned, realizing he'd played her. "Fine," she glared, straightening up and taking a few deep breaths. "You still owe me a birthday present, though." She started to jog, much more slowly this time, waiting for him to fall in beside her.
Puck laughed and shook his head, catching up to her and matching her pace. "No doubt" he chuckled. "When's your birthday? Maybe I'll throw you a party in the basement."
"September fifteenth," she jogged beside him. "But I was only kidding. You don't have to buy me anything. Party'd be fun, though."
"Fifteenth? Really? Shit... That doesn't leave much time to get insane amounts of alcohol... I'll find a way," he assured her. "S'gonna get messy." And the smirk was back.
"Really," Santana confirmed. She gave him a sidelong look, glad to see him smirking again. "You think you can get all that booze in without the doc finding out? If you can manage that, I'm looking forward to it."
"Santana, Santana, Santana," he shook his head. "The man's a telepath. He finds out everything, but he lets me do what I want, anyway. As long as I don't corrupt the general population of McKinley with my delinquency, he doesn't really care too much... Not really a parenting method that many people would recommend, obviously... Look at how I turned out," he laughed.
She laughed, despite her continued shortness of breath from her first sprint. "I think you turned out pretty awesome," she assured him. "And as long as he won't end up taking away your video games or something afterward then I'm down with it. Actually," she corrected herself, "I'm really looking forward to it. Birthday parties are the best kind of parties. Back home, we always had these massive parties, even when I was really young. Seemed like they went on for days."
"Nah, he only does that when I almost kill someone. I don't think it'll get that messy," he chuckled. "So who do you wanna invite?" Puck asked.
"I hope not," she laughed. She thought about his question for a moment and smiled. "Well, anyone that wants to come, really - we can throw it up on the bulletin board or something!" she added excitedly. "The more the merrier, right?"
"You nuts?" He asked with a laugh. "How's Doc supposed to ignore that? And there's only so much space in my room and alcohol I can afford, especially if I'mma get you something nice," he reasoned, giving her a smile. "But I figure maybe eight, ten people would be ok to sneak in. So there's us, can't really kick Sam out, so that's three. The rest are totally up to you, of course. It's your party, after all."
"I guess you've got a point," Santana laughed. "And you're throwing me a party, you don't have to get me anything."
"I'll have to think about it," she mused. "I haven't met most of the new kids yet, after all. Finn - we need to invite Finn. I'll get back to you on the rest." Something struck her. "Wait - if the doc gave you a roommate, and we're full, then who's my roommate? That doesn't make any sense."
"I always have a point. And you won the race, fair and square, Lopez. What else do I have to spend my money on?"
He shrugged. "Well maybe we're just at capacity for guys. Doc's hardly gonna have the rooming situation go co-ed."
"Well, if you insist," she laughed, "then bling is always nice."
"Hmm - yeah, I guess. I'd kinda prefer if we didn't go co-ed, personally. Don't need to be changing in front of guys."
"I'll see what I can do." Puck nodded.
"Yeah, that'd kinda suck. For you anyway. Not so much the guy, in question. Do you even have private bathrooms up there?"
"Cool," she smiled, brushing back a strand of hair that escaped her ponytail.
"No, I guess it'd be okay for him," she laughed, "And yeah, we've got our own bathrooms. Don't you guys?"
"Oh, yeah. We do. We're two floors from a public one," he laughed, getting a little out of breath now.
"That'd be a long trip in the middle of the night," Santana laughed, a little out of breath herself. "I think most of the girls' rooms have their own. Not a bad idea, either - I think there'd be fights if we were all sharing the public ones."
"I need to find a way to make that happen." Puck said seriously. "Catfights" he elaborated, simply.
"Such a boy," Santana's pace was slowing as she started to tire, but she wasn't about to stop. "I can't figure that one out. You know when we actually fight, it's not like on tv, right? Our clothes don't come off, there's no mud involved? Just lots of hair pulling and scratching, the occasional slap and punch. We don't usually make out after, either. Sorry to burst your fantasies."
She looked over at him and laughed.
Puck went quiet for a moment, as he thought about it. "Still hot," he finally concluded.
She laughed - loudly, echoing across the quiet campus. "You're insane," she laughed. "I think having guy parts shorts out the logic center in your brains."
Puck laughed and undid the last two buttons on the over shirt he'd forgotten to remove. He took it off and tied it around his waist as her ran, before turning to Santana slightly, to show her his t-shirt. "I'm well aware," he laughed some more.
"Very appropriate," she laughed, reaching over to hit him jokingly on the arm. "It feels good to be out doing this again. I let myself get lazy at home. Ate too much of Mom's cooking. At least at school I can share all of it with other people."
"Mmmmm, your mom's cooking." He said, as if he were Homer Simpson, referring to donuts.
"Don't worry," Santana assured him with a chuckle, "she sent your favorites with me again."
"Score!" Puck announced, picking up the pace. He got a lot of exercise anyway, but if he was going to be eating the kinds of food that Santana had brought with her, working a little harder, had to be a good thing.
"I figured that'd cheer you up," Santana laughed, increasing her own pace to match his. "Mama's always "is that nice Puck boy getting enough to eat?" I clearly haven't told her enough about you."
"Obviously not," he laughed, shaking his head. "How about we keep it that way? I'm sure there are worse things, than your mom wrongly thinking that I'm nice, and underfed." Puck smirked. He just hoped Santana hadn't actually noticed how much weight he'd lost last year. And he really hoped she hadn't brought it up to her mother, who had never even met him.
Not that it really mattered now, anyway. He was feeling much better now. Physically, emotionally, and mentally much stronger than he'd been at the end of last year. Not that he'd ever tell anyone who he had to thank for that.
"Oh, trust me," she laughed again, "if I told her about the real Puck, she'd be down here chasing you with a rolling pin or something. I'll keep telling her you're a nice boy, she'll keep sending you food and not pull me out of school. Everybody wins!"
She was beginning to seriously tire now - the first sprint had taken a lot out of her, and she could feel sweat soaking through her tank top. While the thought of being so close to naked in front of him made her nervous and filled her stomach with butterflies, she didn't want to keep running in the drenched top, so she pulled it over her head. That left her in just a sports bra and her shorts, and she held the tank top in her right hand as she ran.
Puck laughed. "Sounds good to me..."
Puck really did try not to watch her removing her top, out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn't really help it. He was only a human, for crying out loud. Yeah, her mother really would chase him with a makeshift weapon of some sort, if she only knew.
"Tired yet?" He smirked.
She almost denied it, but what would be the point of that? She'd stripped off her top, and she could feel herself slowing down. "Little bit," she admitted, sighing. "I knew I was out of shape."
He shook his head. "Nah, it is a long haul," he conceeded. "S'just that some of us had nothing better to do all summer than run this circuit twice a day, and kick St James' ass at air hockey. I'm used to this. That was literally all I did." Well, almost.
"Come on," he said, veering off to the right, toward the stables. They'd only done one lap of the lake, after all, but he didn't want her to collapse from exhaustion.
Santana wanted to protest, but her aching muscles warned her against it. She nodded, instead, and followed him toward the stables. She was just looking forward to sitting down, at this point.
"So, how was your summer? Aside from lazy..." he joked as they continued on the last leg of the run.
"Really good, actually," she chuckled at his joke. "I love going home. I mean, I love it here, and it's so awesome learning how to control this thing I do, but - I miss my family, you know? When I go home and visit we stay up talking until we fall asleep at the kitchen table, and all my aunts and uncles and cousins and everything all come out so we can have a giant party. We watched a truckload of movies and ate an amazing amount of food - it was all pretty awesome."
She looked sidelong at him. "How was yours?"
That sounded completely alien to him, having a home, and a family. He'd had those things once, but he couldn't really remember them at all. The only thing he knew about his parents was in a single paragraph, written in loopy handwriting - he assumed it was his mother's - and tucked into the pocket, of his three-year-old self. The note claimed that he was very much loved, and that giving him up was almost the last thing they'd wanted. That they were simply afraid for their special little boy and needed him to be somewhere safe. The note didn't explain why he was unsafe where he'd been, so he didn't really know what that meant. Dr Shuester had tried tracking them down, using the name that the note had stated, belonged to the child, but he'd had no luck.
Puck shook himself out of his thoughts, just in time to catch Santana's question. "Uh... Can you keep a secret?"
"Not usually," she laughed. "But in your case I'll make an exception."
Puck side-eyed her. "Well that fills me with confidence." He rolled his eyes. "I mostly hung out with Jesse. He's really not that bad, even if I just spent my day convincing people that he's the devil, or something. He helped me through some shit... Just remember... I know where you sleep, and have ways of getting in that don't involve opening the door." He threatened lamely. He should have picked something she'd worry that he might actually go through with. Killing her in her sleep? Not one of those things.
Santana raised an eyebrow. Well, that hadn't been what she was expecting. "That's cool," she nodded. "I'm glad he's...less scary with you than he is with us. And if he could help you," she could imagine with what, but she wasn't about to say it out loud, "then I'm glad he was here. And my lips are sealed, despite the fact that I'd knock out the powers of anyone you sent in after me," she laughed.
Puck laughed. "I'm pretty sure he's not really any less scary with me. But I don't exactly scare too easy." A conversation with Jesse was never exactly all kittens and rainbows or anything, but he was a good enough person to actually want to help Puck, without being too close to his situation, to actually do it. And his power helped their little therapy sessions get under way. It was like an emotional-bullshit detector. It was ridiculously hard, and sort of pointless to put up a front, around him. "But he's an ok guy. I figured that if he insisted on trying to get all up in my business, he has the resources to do it, so I should just let him. Turns out, he's pretty smart. Gives really good advice, at any rate."
"Santana, Santana, Santana... Who said anything about sending someone else in to do my dirty work for me? I do my own murderin', thank you very much," he smirked.
"I'm glad he could help," Santana said quietly. "I'm sure it was nice to have someone like him around."
She smirked right back. "Well, last time I checked, Puck, invisibility and healing don't let you in my room without opening the door. Isn't that what you said?"
"I wouldn't go that far," he chuckled, as the stables came into view at the crest of the hill they were slowly climbing.
"No, they don't," he conceded. "That's where having a bro who can make solid objects, ya know, not solid comes in real handy. He wouldn't need to enter the room."
Santana sighed with relief as the stables appeared in the distance - she really did need to sit down soon. "Well, I'm glad he gives good advice, then, how's that?" she laughed.
"Ah, yes - I think you've got me on a technicality there. I concede," she put her arms up in surrender.
"Yeah, that'll do," he laughed as they neared the stables.
"S'how I roll, babe," he smirked.
Santana reached the stables and nearly fell over as she sat down. She stretched as best she could, trying to keep herself from cramping up, and looked enviously at Puck. He barely looked winded.
"I hate you," she muttered, smiling to take the sting out of the words.
"I'm sure you do," he smirked. "I thought we were gonna race to the bunker? Tricking you into exhaustion was pointless after all? How on Earth am I going to repair my damaged pride?" he joked.
"I'll concede the win," Santana said, waving a hand at him. "Congratulations, your pride is restored." She laid on her back, looking up at the morning sky. "We need to do this more often. I need to get back in shape."
He shook his head. "Nope. Tomorrow we're racing for real. Then you'll owe me a huge birthday present," he informed her.
"Given how bad you handed me my ass today, I have no doubt I will," she laughed.
"We'll work on your powers for longer than we did today, though," he told her.
Sounds like a deal to me." She turned enough to look up at him. "Soon, I'll be shutting you down while you're trying to peep in the girl's washroom or something. There'll be embarrassment all around." She winked to show she was teasing.
"Why you gotta go ruining all my fun?" Puck deadpanned. "No fair."
"I knew it," she smirked. "It was you that wrote "I know what you did last summer" on that one mirror last year, wasn't it? Some of the girls just about had heart attacks."
He looked at her like she was nuts. "Uhhh... no. I've never actually been in there, Lopez. I was kidding. Good news? Nobody's actually turned up dead, so I'm pretty sure it's not a serial killer," he laughed.
"Really?" she raised an eyebrow. "Damn - I owe somebody some credit, then. The number of girls who were in the shower that day, I can't believe someone snuck in without getting seen. Whoever it was, I owe them some credit."
She stretched her arms over her head, sighing. "So, am I your last appointment of the day? Got the rest of the evening to veg out?"
"I'm pretty sure that chick with the crazy red hair and a constant scowl can fade out... not sure though. Wouldn't like to accuse," he smirked.
"Yeah, I think I'm meant to be kicking my new roomie's ass at some nerd game he brought with him, or something," he shrugged.
"Can she?" Santana thought back to whether she'd ever seen the girl use her power. "Good to know. I should get her a medal or something, that was pretty epic."
Santana laughed. "You sound thrilled about it. I think it's sweet, indulging the new roommate."
"I'm pretty sure, yeah," he confirmed.
"Hey, I resent that. I've never done anything sweet in my whole life, thank you very much," he defended, as if she'd just suggested that he'd done something truly terrible. "It's a video game," he shrugged again. "How bad could it be? Besides, I'll do pretty much anything for a quiet life, and if he's happy, I'm happy."
"Cool," Santana nodded. "I really do owe her a drink or something."
She put up her hands. "Okay, I take it back! No sweetness from Puck, none whatsoever! Hopefully his game's decent, at least," she smirked a little, "and he doesn't kick your ass too bad at it."
He laughed at that. "The only way that'll happen, is after I start to feel sorry for him and let him win a game or two" he said seriously. He was that cocky about it.
"Well, see, now you're just begging me to put twenty bucks on him kicking your ass first time out," she raised an eyebrow in challenge.
"That's fine with me..." he stuck his hand out for her to shake.
She took his hand and shook it firmly. "I want a screenshot or something for proof, though. Or to hear it from your roomie. I won't put my twenty on unsubstantiated claims." She laughed.
"I'll call and put him on the phone. Don't be surprised if you can't understand him through the blubbering though," he smirked.
"Tough talk," she snickered. "Let's see you back it up."
"You will," he assured her, his smirk getting bigger.
"I'll be waiting," she grinned, standing up and stretching. She considered throwing her tank top back on, but it was still drenched, so she threw it over her shoulder. "But in the meantime, I'm going back to my room. Shower, possibly die, we'll see how the evening goes."
"Sounds like one hell of a plan to me... Minus the dying. Don't do that part," he laughed.
"I'll do my best," she promised with a wink. "Have a good night, Puck, and I'll be waiting for that confirmation of your crushing defeat!" she grinned.
"You too, Lopez" he said with a smile. "I'll talk to you later. Prepare for disappointment."