If life was a fairytale, everything would have been perfect after that. But life wasn't and this wasn't any different. As okay with it as Finn tried to be, he still had these moments where he looked at Puck with nothing but anger and hurt in his chocolate eyes. Puck tried to focus on Rachel, tried to focus on being happy, but he couldn't get past that look. He couldn't get past how hurt Quinn looked when she caught Finn starting at Rachel and Puck. He knew that his new girlfriends had made amends with her former flame, and now it was his turn to make things right with his best friend.

"Come on, man, let's go get a slushie," Puck announced one morning when he had pulled his truck to the edge of the Hummels' driveway, blocking Finn's car so that he couldn't get out. The tall quarterback looked at him and then his car for a moment before shrugging and throwing himself into the passenger side of Puck's vehicle. "I feel like we haven't hung out in a while."

"We haven't," Finn agreed as he looked at the trees passing by in a blur. "Kinda hard to do when you're always screwing me over."

"Dude, you know it wasn't like that," Puck replied defensively. Except, it was like that, at least sometimes, and Puck knew he could never be sorry enough for all the things he had done to his best friend. "Besides, you know how I sorry I am about everything that happened before. I thought you had forgiven me."

Finn twisted sideways in his seat to look over at him. "I did, doesn't make it any easier to see you with her though. Just reminds me of all the things you did, of all the times you picked some chick over me and what that did to us, man. I know it's not cool for guys to be open or whatever, but that's just how it feels."

Puck thought for a moment. "I can see that," he admitted and then "I really am sorry, you know. Not just for Quinn and Rachel before but about this time. I know it was over with you guys but I'm still sorry. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, dude, you have to know that. It might not seem like it but there's something about her…I just can't help it."

A small chuckle escaped past Finn's pursed lips. "Yeah, I get that," Finn grinned, and Puck knew that his best friend was likely the only other guy on the planet who truly did understand. They had both been enchanted by the spell of Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray. Sure, they'd taken turns over the years, but it always seemed like one or the other was entangled with those two girls. "I missed you, dude."

"Hey, me too," Puck said seriously, reaching across the bench seat to bump his fist to Finn's. He pulled the truck into the parking spot and jumped out, not bothering to wait until Finn caught up. He would soon enough, he always did. Wherever Puck ended up, he knew that Finn would never be too far behind. They might take turns leading sometimes, but even more than Rachel and Quinn, Puck had a bond with Finn that nothing – not even two beautiful girls – could ever really break. "Get two, I'm paying. I'm gonna go grab us some burritos."

The emotional honesty had been a little heavy, and Puck was glad that they were able to leave that behind when they jumped back in the truck to head to McKinley. They talked about the upcoming baseball game and Nationals and the party that Mercedes was supposed to be throwing that weekend while her parents were out of town. They made plans to hang out on Friday night like they used to, just pizza and beer and video games while Puck watched his sister and his mom worked the late shift at the hospital. It was like nothing had changed by the time they had pulled into the high school parking lot.

"Alright, dude, I'll catch up with you at lunch," Finn called as he headed toward the front of the school. He threw a smile Rachel's way as he passed her on his way to where Quinn was waiting for him. "Hey, Rach, I like your sweater!"

He didn't even wait for her response as he bounded happily toward the pretty blonde leaning against the school's brick exterior. Rachel rubbed her arms down the sleeve of her dark green sweater. She smiled softly and shook her head a little while waiting for Puck to catch up with her. "Are you boys playing nice?"

"We're friends again," Puck revealed with the happiest smile Rachel had seen in quite awhile. "We talked, I bought him a slushie, all is forgiven. We're going to hang out on Friday, so you'll have to make plans with Kurt and the girls or something."

"Just like that?"

"Babe, we're guys," he reminded her. There were some things Rachel would never understand, and boys bonding over junk food was one of them. "Finn and me, we're good. He's moving on with Quinn. She's happy with him. We're together. Things are finally good again."

"And we're going to win Nationals," she added as she slid her hand into his. His fingers curled around hers as he led her into the lobby of the school and down the hallway toward their lockers.

Puck shook his head at her single-mindedness. Always focused, that was his girl. "And we're going to kill it at Nationals," he corrected her. "Did you ever think this is how you'd end your time at McKinley?"

Rachel leaned back against her locker. "No, of course not," she had to laugh. "I spent most of my first two years here virtually alone, covered in high fructose corn syrup of varying shades. I had no friends, nothing that really mattered to me other than singing. But you guys, I never could have counted on all of you. I hoped for it to happen, to make friends and fall in love, but I never expected it to happen."

"Would you change anything?"

"Not a single thing," she mused with a wide smile. "If I did, I wouldn't be standing here with you. We wouldn't be the people that we are now. We all made a lot of mistakes but look where that brought us, Noah. It gave you Beth and brought Blaine and Sam into our lives and allowed Brittany and Santana to fall in love. It made Kurt and Tina both be honest about who they were, gave Mike the courage to dance and sing, and showed the world what a talent Mercedes is. It showed everyone that Quinn wasn't just some mindless cheerleader and that Finn had more to him than a decent throwing arm. Most of all, it brought you to me. Given the chance, I'd do all of it all over again as long as I got to end up right here in this moment with you."

He might not have had the words to put things like she did, but Puck could show her how he felt with a kiss. He leaned forward, resting his forehead to hers, and kissed her softly and sweetly. "I love you."

"Love you," she replied in a soft whisper before pulling back.

Somewhere down the hallway, Quinn was talking idly about her French test when she noticed Finn was staring over at Rachel and Puck. "Finn, have you been listening to anything I've said?"

"Huh?" he asked, broken out of his haze. He looked down at the petite blonde, hands fisted on her narrow hips. He smiled down at her and reached over to cover her hand gently. "Sorry, Quinn, I was just thinking."

"About Rachel and Puck making out?"

"No," he answered honestly, shaking his head. "I was just thinking about how weird life is."

"Finn," she said insistently. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the nearby empty math classroom. "Look, I don't know what's going on with you or what Puck said this morning, but you have to let it go. Please, Finn, just let both of them go. They're happy, they're together. You and I have a second – well, a third – chance to really make this work. And I so want it to work, Finn, I want the future with you that I always imagined. Please, I love you."

He couldn't help but smile at her as he reached for her hand. "Quinn, you're the only one I want to be with now," he promised. He led her hand and pressed it over his racing heart. "When I was watching them back there, I wasn't thinking about how I was angry or jealous. I was thinking about how happy I was for them. I was thinking how I was glad that you were giving me another chance and that we were finally in a place where we could really try again without all of that other stuff in the way. I've never been good with words, but with you, I always really good with three. I love you, Quinn. That's all there is."

She leaned up on her toes and kissed him soundly. "That's all I need, that's all I want."

"Good because I want all those things you want. I want to follow you to Yale so you can make all those dreams come true, and then I want to come back to Lima so that we can get married and start the family we used to talk about."

"I want that too," she promised. "And if you don't want to go to New Haven, we can stay here. I got accepted at Ohio State. I don't need to go to Connecticut to get what I want."

"Yes, we do," he corrected her. He wasn't sure how it was all going to work but he trusted enough in fate that it would. "We'll figure it out later, but right now, you need to know how I proud of you I am and how much I can't wait for our lives to begin."

"Why wait?" she questioned him with a kiss. "It can start whenever we say."

"Because for right now, at least for a couple more months, I want to just enjoy being a kid," he grinned. The bell rang in the hallway, and Finn grabbed her hand to pull her back out to their lockers for their books. "Oh, by the way, you're gonna have to hang out with Britt and San on Friday or something because I'm having a guys' night at Puck's."

"Aw, a little man date!" Quinn teased. "That's sweet."

"Nothing about dudes hanging out is sweet, Q," Puck argued as he fell in step next to them.

"Yes, Noah has made sure that I understood under no certain terms that it was strictly going to be beer, pizza and blowing things up," Rachel announced from the other side of her boyfriend. "There will be no bonding of any kind, none whatsoever."

Finn and Puck bumped fists over Quinn's head. "That's right, just a little COD and Bud," Finn told the girls. "You two should hang out too or something."

"We could have a sleepover," Quinn pondered, looking over at Rachel. A mischievous glint sparkled in her eyes. "My house will be empty with my parents out of town."

"Your parents are out of town?" the guys asked in unison, Finn thinking of the alone time they could have in the hot tub and Puck thinking about the party they could throw.

Quinn nodded innocently. "What do you say, Rachel? Do you want to keep me company in my big bed?"

Puck looked at the blonde to his left and then at the brunette on his right. "Say yes, Rach," he begged. "Please say yes."

"You do know that you're not invited, Noah, right?" she asked with a saucy wink. "I'd love to spend some time alone with you, Quinn."

"Glad that's settled," Quinn giggled.

"You girls should do that," Puck agreed. They all knew what he was thinking. "And if you happen to get lonely, you could always give us a call…"

"Or at least send pictures," Finn said, "you know, if anything interesting happens."

Quinn rounded Puck and looped her arm through Rachel's when they got to their first period class. "What happens at a sleepover, stays at the sleepover," Quinn taunted them. "A girl needs her privacy."

With that, the two girls smiled and turned on their heels to escape into their classroom. "Dude, we're so dead if they're friends," Finn said worriedly as he watched the girls bend their heads together and whisper.

"They know all of our secrets, man," Puck realized. "We're so dead…but what a way to go."

"Yeah, man," Finn agreed with a nod. He reached over and bumped his fist to Puck's again as they headed toward the gym. "No one else I'd rather go down with, I guess."

"Me neither, man, me neither."

And like that, over the course of a single hour, the four of them were friends again – or maybe really for the first time ever.