(Author's note: it's been almost a year since I worked on this story, but I got inspired. We'll see if any more of it is forthcoming anytime soon. Warnings for boys fooling around and surprise feelings. Enjoy - amy)

They pulled into Puck's gravel driveway a little before six, the sun still securely below the horizon, but the sky was hazy in the light of dawn. Puck was glad Sam had let him drive the rest of the way, considering how Sam had reacted to his driving last night. The truth was, he was a little too wired on adrenaline to sleep anyway. He managed just fine on a couple hours of sleep, as long as he didn't have to do it more than a couple nights in a row.

It wasn't what had happened last night that was getting to him. That had been hot, and maybe a little impulsive, but Puck had done it before with other straight guys, and they usually went along with it as long as there was something in it for them. He and Sam had never been best buds, but Puck had always suspected Sam might lean both ways, given the opportunity, and it looked like he'd been right. And now Puck had motivation to create opportunities.

Sam staying in his extra bed, for example. That would no doubt provide the two of them with some ideal naked horizontal time together. He grinned to himself, getting a little thrill from the idea of a convenient, hot body, right there in his own bedroom. And no one need be the wiser.

"My Ma'll be up for work soon," he said quietly, setting his bag down on the floor by the kitchen. "You can throw your stuff in my room, end of the hall. You want some breakfast?"

Sam grimaced. "That McDonald's coffee at 4 am didn't set so well with me. I think I'd better pass. I can hold off until lunch."

He nodded. "Cool. Well, unless you were hoping to get more sleep, we should head out. The quicker we get out of the house, the less likely we are to run into -"

"Noah," Puck heard from down the hall. He winced. Shit. He raised his voice to be heard around the corner.

"Yeah, Ma."

"What the hell do you think you're doing out there, making all that noise at six fucking o'clock?" She frowned at the two of them from her doorway, and caught sight of Sam. "Who's this? I told you not to bring your guys into my house, Noah. I won't have any of that homo bullshit around Sarah."

"Calm down, Ma." Puck took Sam's arm and guided him away from his Ma's glare. "This is Sam. He's a friend from Glee. He just needs a place to stay for a little while, okay?"

"Ma'am," Sam said, and even mustered a polite nod, almost like a bow.

"Don't think you boys'll be drinking in my house," she snapped. "I know what you get up to when no adults are around."

"Whatever, Ma. We're going to school now. We'll be back tonight."

Sam didn't look scared by the confrontation, which was good, but Puck still felt a rush of embarrassment to have somebody else witness just what his Ma could be like. He avoided Sam's eyes, not wanting to see the pity or derision he was sure would be waiting there. Sam said nothing, but he went with Puck back out to his truck and climbed into the cab.

"Sorry about that, man," Sam said quietly. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble with your mom."

"Hey, no. I mean, she's kind of always like that. I expected it. Should've warned you." Puck let the engine rev a little, scowling. He sighed. "Not much like your family, huh."

"Not much," Sam agreed. "But it's not really any of my business. I'm just glad you're giving me a place to crash. I can stay out of her way."

Puck nodded. Sam's kindness was almost harder to bear than insults. "That'd probably be for the best. You just tell me if she gets on your case, okay? I don't put up with that shit from her, and neither should you."

Sam watched him as he accelerated around the corner, maybe a little too fast, but whatever. "I'm sorry you have to deal with that from your own mom."

"She's a pretty sucky mom. I mean, hey, it's nothing new." He shrugged, trying to make it seem like no big deal, but Puck could tell by the way Sam was looking at him that he wasn't buying it. It made him nervous. "Glee's a better family anyway."

He thought that would cheer up Sam, but he still looked troubled. Puck reached out a hand and poked him on the thigh, making Sam startle. "What?"

"You know, everybody missed you." Puck didn't mean the words to come out so angry. He felt his cheeks flush, and focused on the road.

"Yeah?" Sam said softly.

Puck frowned at the dashboard. "Yeah, well... you're a hell of a singer." He flicked his eyes at Sam, watching him notice it. Fuck. He shifted in his seat. Arriving at school with a hard-on was a stupid way to start the day.

"You missed me?"

"Sam," he growled, and Sam's grin widened. Puck rolled his eyes.

"You know I missed everybody, too. It sucked to have to leave like that."

Puck nodded. "Believe me, I get it. Being in juvie, that was a wake-up call. I missed my sister, but all you guys... something about the way we all, you know. Depend on each other?"

The words that were coming out of his mouth sounded so cheesy, Puck would have expected to be teased for them by anybody else - but not from Sam. He was nodding seriously. "Exactly. That's the family thing."

Puck pulled into the parking spot closest to the football field, shifting it into first and putting the parking brake on before turning his truck off and leaning back in his seat.

"You left your own family to come back north to deal with this one," he said. "That sure says something about the kind of guy you are."

Sam let out a slow sigh. "Yeah, well... I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Hey. No." Puck touched Sam's shoulder. This time, when Sam looked at him, he looked back. He was pretty sure that meant Sam was going to see something of the way he was feeling, but this was more important. Sam had to know he meant it. "It's a good thing."

Sam stared at him for a moment, and then he nodded. "All right."

Puck had no idea if that all right meant Sam trusted him, or if Sam was just playing the part of someone who did, but either way, he'd accept it.

The first person to see Sam and do a double-take was Artie. "Sam!" he shouted, wheeling toward them down the hall with a big smile. Sam paused, glancing nervously at Puck, but he smiled back.

"Hey," he said, and slapped Artie's offered hand. Artie looked up at him with a quizzical expression.

"What's going on? Finn said something about you going down to Kentucky to get Sam, but I thought he was joking."

"No joke," said Puck. "Took a road trip and found this loser working for peanuts in a total dive. Told him to get his ass back to McKinley, yo. Glee club needed him."

"Yeah!" Artie grinned. "Wow, you really came back to Lima for us?"

"Really did." Sam looked a little pink. "Now we're that much closer to winning Nationals."

The rest of Glee descended on him a few at a time as the word spread through the halls, laughing and hugging Sam. Finn looked somewhat stunned that he'd actually gone to get him, which made Puck a little annoyed.

"I said I would," he said. "You didn't believe me?"

"Well, it's a long drive." Finn shrugged, watching his face. "Just... I would have gone with you."

"We managed," was all Puck said in reply.

He was glad, watching Sam talk to Brittany and Tina and Kurt, but it was a little charged with strangeness, the new awareness between them. Sam's hands were describing something as he talked with Mike across the room, and all Puck could see was Sam underneath him in the hotel room bed, saying fuck, yeah, please just before he came first.

Puck ended up ditching Glee and hiding out under the bleachers, smoking a joint and ignoring everyone who came by looking to bum a hit. He could hear them, shuffling by, waiting for him to offer to share, because he usually did. Not today.

"Get your own fucking junk," he muttered without turning around.

"I don't smoke pot," said Quinn's low alto. "But neither do you, except when you're freaking out about something."

She sat down beside him. Her hair was blonde again, but her attitude still said skank, which was oddly comforting. Puck grimaced, staring at the remains of his joint, and shrugged. "I guess."

"Yeah, I know you, Puck. You can talk, or not talk, but I can see it, even when you're not under the bleachers." She gave him an encouraging smile. "Is it about Sam coming back?"

"I'm the one who fucking went to get him," he snapped.

"Okay, but sometimes when we get something, it's not exactly what we expected. Now Sam's back in the spotlight."

"Dude, Sam's a good singer. I don't care how many solos he gets."

"That's not what I meant," said Quinn. She leaned her chin on her knee, watching him.

"Then what? Stop trying to be cryptic." He sneered at her. "You suck at it."

"I'm saying, everybody was paying attention to Sam."

"So?"

"And he wasn't paying attention to you."

Puck opened his mouth to answer, and stuck the joint in, taking one last drag before ditching it in the dirt, stamping it out with the toe of his boot. "I'm fucking out of here."

But he went back to Glee, because Sam was staying at his house, and even though Puck wasn't at all sure he'd be there, he was, waiting in the middle of the empty choir room. He stood up when Puck arrived, his face brightening like somebody had brought him a cookie. Fuck.

"You want a ride?" Puck asked.

While Puck drove home, Sam told him all about the paperwork he'd had to complete in order to be reinstated as a student, even though he'd been a student at McKinley just a couple months before. Puck was mostly silent as he took the corners at his usual velocity, watching Sam clutching the seat with each acceleration. He parked the truck in his driveway and led Sam into the house, dumping his backpack on the floor by the couch.

"My sister'll be home in about an hour," he said, "but we're the only ones here until then. You want to fool around?"

Sam's stride stopped abruptly, and he stopped beside Puck's kitchen table. "Uh."

"That's a yes or a no, Evans. If you have to think about it, I'd say that's a no."

"No, I'm just - I didn't think - " Sam took a breath. "Yes. It's a yes."

"Cool." Puck tried to keep his voice calm. "My room?"

It was their room, which was a little strange to think about, but Sam's presence was distracting enough that he could ignore the other bed across the room and pull Sam down on his, palming the crotch of his jeans.

Sam wasn't hard yet, but Puck was pretty sure he could solve that. He'd been half-hard all day, watching Sam's hands and mouth and thinking about that second bed, about what it would be like when they went to bed in the room together after getting each other off.

"You want to fuck me?" Puck asked. He felt Sam's motion still, his hands on Puck's ribs under his t-shirt.

"I don't think I'm up for that," Sam said, sounding regretful. "Sorry."

"Hey, no big. I can take no. You can set the pace." Puck lifted his shirt off and tossed it on the floor, watching Sam's eyes traveling over his pecs. He knew flexing for Sam was kind of like bragging to the reigning Mario champion about his high score, but he did it anyway. "You like what you see?"

"I - yes?" Sam touched his throat, his collarbone, tentative and slow, and seeing that uncertainty was unexpectedly hot. He moved his fingers to Puck's nipple ring, just for a moment, then away, brushing his abs, relaxing his shoulders with a sigh. "I've never done this before. With a guy."

"Not so bad, huh?" Puck unbuckled his belt and slid his jeans down, stepping out of them and kneeling over Sam on the bed. Sam licked his lips as Puck reached into his underwear, giving himself a squeeze. He put a hand over Puck's, stopping him.

"Okay, can I do that this time?"

Puck took his hands off, holding them open. "Be my guest."

Sam's hands were great, he wasn't going to complain about his hands, but there was only so much Puck could do with Sam there on that bed without looking at his mouth, and fuck, Sam's lips were wet and parted and he kept running his tongue back and forth across the top one. He was like a fucking poster child for cocksucking.

"You okay with kissing?" Puck asked. He really hadn't meant to, but he needed to do something with Sam's mouth, and the worst Sam could do would be to say no, right?

But Sam said, "Yeah, kissing is cool," and before Puck knew it, he was wrapping his arms around Puck, pulling him down on top of him, his tongue going for some serious action. Puck wasn't going to try to hold out at this rate, but he was pretty sure Sam wasn't either, the way he was beating off against Puck's hip. He turned his mouth, their cheeks rubbing together, breathing into Puck's ear. "This is really okay?"

"This is fucking awesome," Puck told him, and reveled in Sam's groan.

"Girls never want to do this."

"You've been going for the wrong girls." Puck tried that kissing again, the way Sam had done it, fucking his mouth with his tongue. "Yeah, god, that's hot, fuck. Can I suck you?"

"You - you want to?" Sam looked abruptly scared again, like he might call things off, but Puck sucked on his earlobe and bit his neck and licked all the way up his chin until Sam was a shuddering mass underneath him. "Yeah, suck me."

Puck tried to focus on just the head, on making it good for Sam, but like usual he got distracted halfway through, exploring the rest of the guy's cock with his tongue, wondering what Sam would do if he tried fingering him. Just thinking about it was enough to make him get his own hand wrapped around his dick again, jerking himself quickly. Sam made a low groan, and suddenly his hand was on Puck's head, pushing him away.

"What? What's wrong?" Puck looked up at Sam, struggling with the amount of saliva his mouth was suddenly producing. He wanted to get back to what he was doing.

"You're gonna make me come in your mouth," Sam said, looking apologetic again. Puck raised an eyebrow at him.

"Kind of the idea, yeah? You don't like it?"

"I like it. I like it a lot. I just don't want to - I mean, come on, you're being really cool, but..." He stared down at Puck helplessly. "Nobody wants that."

"I do," Puck said. "Unless you want to come somewhere else. Come on, man, I'm losing my momentum. That was hot." He leaned back in, licking his way down Sam's cock, making him gasp and thrust forward.

"Fuck," Sam muttered, "fuck, that's... fuck." He put out a hand and rested it on Puck's head, gently at first, then tugging with more insistence. "Oh god, that feels so - I'm gonna come, right now -"

Puck thought Sam might pull away again at the last minute, but he stayed with it, letting himself be surprisingly loud as he came. Puck was glad; cleanup was easier if he just swallowed, and they wouldn't have to get up and look for tissues right away, but mostly he just thought it was really fucking hot to look up and see Sam's awesome body, arching up and bucking into his mouth. He barely lasted thirty seconds more, himself, shooting off onto the floor next to the bed before crawling up to collapse beside him, chest heaving.

"You really never had a girl swallow?" he asked, resting his hand on Sam's chest. Sam had to have waxed there; there was no way he would have gotten a shave that smooth. Puck didn't bother trying to get rid of the hair on his body, and in all his years messing around with girls and guys, nobody had ever complained about it.

"I've never had a girl give me a blowjob," Sam admitted.

Puck sat up, grinning at him. "That was your first blowjob? Really?"

"Hey, fuck you." Sam's glare held no energy, and after a moment, he sighed. "Really."

"Well?" Puck tapped his chest. "How'd I do?"

"How'd you -" Sam laughed incredulously. "How do you think you did?"

Sam was just as willing to be held afterwards as he had been the night before, and Puck felt more than a little smug as he slid his other arm underneath his head, being the big spoon. Guys weren't as soft as girls, but they were usually warmer, and Sam's muscles were totally awesome up close. He wasn't going to tell him that, but Puck felt a little in awe of Sam's body.

When they heard the front door open and slam shut, Sam struggled upright, reaching for his clothes with alarm, but Puck patted his shoulder. "It's just my sister Sarah. She won't tell anybody."

Sam watched as Puck got dressed. "You do this a lot? Fool around with... guys, in your room?"

"Not a lot," he said. "It's mostly in clubs, bars, bathrooms. Not a lot of guys coming over to my house."

"No, I guess not." Now Sam looked at the other bed. His cheeks were red. "Kind of convenient."

"Only if you want it to be," Puck said, turning away. He wasn't going to hold Sam's hand through his big gay crisis, but he wasn't going to be a creep, either. "I'm not into forcing anybody. You can just tell me, if you ever want to do it again."

Sarah was on the couch with a bag of pretzels, and when Puck came over and flopped down beside her, Sam joined them. "Sarah," he said, pointing, "Sam. Sam, Sarah."

Sam gave her a little wave. "Nice to meet you. So what are we watching?"

"Clone Troopers," Sarah said, switching the channel to Cartoon Network, and Sam immediately brightened. The two of them spent the next half hour fangirling about Star Wars, and even though Puck didn't know who the hell Asoka Tano was, he found himself grinning like an idiot through the whole thing.

Sam was polite to Puck's mom, and she made dinner for them, even though she was glaring at them through most of it. Sarah and Puck did the dishes quickly and left their mother to watch her own shows while they went to their rooms. Puck gave Sam the desk, sprawling on the bed with his guitar.

"Don't you have homework?" Sam asked, getting his math book out of his bag.

"Never do it," Puck replied.

Sam regarded him thoughtfully. "How's that working for you?"

"Stellar." He did a Bon Jovi run. "Lemme know when you're done. Then you can get your guitar out and and I can teach you the AC/DC solo from 'You Shook Me All Night Long.'"

Sam didn't question him again, and he finished his math quickly enough. Sam was a fast learner, picking up the pentatonic phrases with ease and having equal facility with the higher octaves on the neck. They played until Sarah thumped the wall, yelling, "Go the fuck to sleep."

Sam looked a little abashed, but Puck just thumped back, yelling, "Put on your fucking headphones." He smiled reassuringly at Sam. "S'okay. It's just our bedtime routine."

"Got it." Sam got undressed slowly, folding his jeans and climbing into his bed wearing his underwear and t-shirt. Then he rolled over onto his side, not saying anything more. Puck snapped the light off. Eventually, they all slept.

When Puck woke up in this middle of the night this time, Sam was already awake, sitting on the edge of his bed. He waited until Puck's eyes were open to touch his leg through the blanket.

"You said I should, uh, tell you," Sam whispered. "If I felt bad for any of it? And if I, like, wanted it again."

"Do you feel bad?"

"Not exactly," Sam told him. His hand was already moving the blanket aside. When Puck groped him, he found Sam had taken off his underwear and was already hard. "Would you mind sucking me again? I woke up thinking about it and... I can't stop."

They went to Sam's bed this time, Puck leaning over his prone form, using his hand to jerk Sam off into his mouth. He loved how loud Sam was, but he had to nudge him a couple times to get him to stop moaning. "My sister won't freak out, but she'll get annoyed if we wake her up, and my mom would freak out."

"Okay," Sam gasped, "okay, yeah, sorry, just... don't stop?"

Sam wasn't just loud, he liked to talk. And Puck thought that was just about the hottest thing ever, besides Sam's lips. "That feels amazing, fuck, yeah, like that with your tongue, fuck... you really like doing this?"

Puck murmured some kind of enthusiastic affirmative. Sam spread his legs a little further, not objecting to Puck's fingers brushing the base of his cock and cupping his balls.

"You... want me to do this to you?"

Puck backed off, watching Sam with anticipation, the roiling, coursing desire already getting him hard again. "Yeah, I want it. But you don't have to."

Sam didn't look exactly enthusiastic about the idea, but Puck could see his own desire, driving him anyway. He knew what that felt like.

"C'mere," he said, sitting on the bed and pulling Sam into an awkward embrace. Sam fumbled a hand between them, but Puck took his hand away, letting their erections be. "Hey. This is awesome, what we're doing, but you've got to follow Puck's rule number one about sex."

"Okay," Sam said slowly. "What's rule number one?"

Puck turned his head and found Sam's ear with his lips, nibbling. He brushed Sam's nipple with his thumb. Puck waited until Sam's squirming turned into gasping, and then into fuck yeahs, before employing his teeth and nails.

"God," Sam whined.

Puck nodded. "Rule number one says... you have to really want it. Otherwise, don't bother." He shifted back off the bed, kneeling in front of Sam. "So, you let me know when you really want to suck my cock. Like, you don't wake up dreaming about me doing it to you, you wake up dreaming about doing it to me. Okay?"

Sam was almost beyond words at this point, but he let Puck finish him off, muffling his groans with his forearm. As soon as he was done, he sank back down onto his bed, half asleep already, but had enough wherewithal to ask, "So what is it you really want?"

I already asked for it, and you turned me down. But that was rude, even at three in the morning. Puck crawled in under the covers, arranging himself so that he was the little spoon. He could feel Sam's rapidly softening dick against his ass, and he ground back against it, pushing Sam's hand down to cup his balls. "Jerk me off. Both hands, like this."

He showed Sam how he liked it, and Sam's large, dexterous hands were clearly good at more than just playing guitar, because he picked up the technique right away. He didn't seem to mind the way Puck was rubbing back against him, either

"You're right," Sam told him thoughtfully, just after Puck came. "It's better when you really want it. That's a good rule." He wiped his hand on the sheet, which Puck wouldn't have done, but he wasn't going to argue in the middle of the night. "I kind of like you here in this bed."

That startled Puck, who was about ready to climb out and go back to his own. "Uh... okay?"

"Yeah." Sam's arms tightened around him, resting his head on Puck's shoulder. "Just... stay here, for a minute?"

That's how they fell asleep, and when the alarm woke Puck up at 6:30, he was a little surprised at just how comfortable it had been. Two people wedged into one single bed had never really appealed to him, but it wasn't so bad with Sam there.

"Mmmm," Sam sighed, an idle hand brushing up and down the center of Puck's body. Neither of them were hard, not after what they'd done just a couple hours ago, but he guessed if they stayed there much longer, they would be. It was tempting. He made himself sit up, extracting himself from Sam's arms. Sam was watching him.

"So... what is this?" he asked.

"Two guys fucking around?" Puck shrugged. "I'm not looking to make some kind of statement. I just want to get off."

It wasn't exactly true, but Sam nodded, accepting his words. They were both silent as they took turns in the bathroom and got ready for school. But Sam stopped him before they went out to the kitchen to get something to eat.

"I really liked that, what we did last night," he said. "I mean, yeah, the - the blowjob, that was amazing. And the kissing. And the sleeping together. I liked that a lot."

It was a little more real than Puck knew what to do with. "Yeah, okay," he agreed, trying to brush past Sam into the hallway, but Sam took his shoulder again, looking into his face with that serious, intense expression.

"I just wanted to say thanks." He leaned down, closing the few inches he had on Puck, until their lips met, soft and slow. It wasn't a passionate kiss. It was - sweet. Puck found himself a little stunned in the aftermath.

"No problem," he managed. "We should... get going."

After that, Sam was back to being casual and friendly. He didn't make any move to kiss Puck goodbye or anything like that, which was good because Puck thought he might have completely freaked out if Sam had. When they got to school, he hopped out of Puck's truck, waving, and headed off to his first class. When he saw Puck in the hall, he nodded at him, but that was all.

Puck found himself under the bleachers again after lunch, sans joint, without even a cigarette, just sitting down there, trying to put everything into a picture that made sense. He had a guy to mess around with at his house, a hot guy at that, and one who didn't seem to mind trying out some new stuff with him. Sure, Sam might be straight, or mostly straight, but he wasn't letting that get in the way of some quality fooling around, and Puck appreciated that. And he did appear to want it.

It wasn't until Glee, when Sam was standing next to Mercedes, laughing with her, touching her arm, that Puck had to admit he'd fucked up a little bit. He'd set himself up to get everything he wanted, and here he was, feeling stupidly jealous about - what?

Quinn moved in to stand next to him on the other side, watching him with an obnoxiously knowing smile. He scowled at her.

"You don't know shit about me," he whispered. She actually laughed.

"How about you let me take you to the Lima Bean after school," she whispered back, "and you can fill me in on exactly what I don't know? And you can help me plan the party."

"What party?"

"The welcome-back one we're going to throw for Sam."