Chapter Sixteen: Quinn

Noah was happy to be working at the Hummels' garage; Burt was a fair employer and wouldn't allow the fact that Puck had knocked up his beloved son cloud his professionalism. He was a good teacher and patient with Noah to boot – an important trait whilst dealing with the footballer. Puck suspected that his endurance stemmed from having such a fashion conscious child, he'd put his life on Kurt's wardrobe being terribly expensive.

After a week of working at the shop, Noah was starting to get the hang of it; he was learning new things everyday and had applied this new knowledge to his beat-up truck. Kurt had certainly been right about his truck being a piece of junk, but after the proper maintenance she ran like a dream.

Sliding back under the car he had been asked to work on, Noah sighed. He was still no closer to Kurt becoming his. Whenever he brought up the subject, the countertenor would basically stick his fingers in his ears and start humming show tunes. Kurt had, however, agreed that they would talk to Quinn and after his shift at the garage Kurt was going to pick him up so that they could meet her at the Lima Bean; Noah only hoped that she would take it well as neither of the boys could afford any added stress.

He felt someone tentatively kick his foot and he rolled himself out from underneath the car. Kurt was standing over him, to start with his face was stern, but then he suddenly dissolved into uncontrollable giggles.

"What's so funny?" Noah asked, a smile pulling at his mouth as he stood.

"You!" Kurt gasped, "You have oil all over your face!"

Noah slid off his gloves and touched his fingers to his cheeks before holding them in front of his face. Sure enough, they came back black.

"Well, I'm a grease-monkey now." Puck said, grinning and Kurt laughed raucously before his chuckling subsided.

"We can't go and meet Quinn with you looking like that." The countertenor muttered as he rifled through his satchel, pulling out a small packet of baby-wipes. He signalled to the back room and told Noah to wipe off as much as he could before he changed.

Huffing, Noah did as he was told and he spotted Burt laughing at his expense, though there was a look of sympathy on his face as well. He knew that dealing with Kurt could be difficult and after spending a week in Noah's company, Burt was beginning to understand how much the footballer cared for his son even if Noah didn't fully understand it himself. After scrubbing at his hand, neck and face with a couple of wipes, Noah removed his overalls, the material protecting most of his clothing, and changed his t-shirt.

The advice about bringing the extra t-shirt coming from Kurt had indeed come in handy. The first couple of days, Noah had ended up in such a mess that two of his favourite shits had been thrown away.

There was a knock at the door before Kurt entered, hand over his eyes as he asked, "Are you decent?"

Noah had to chuckle, after all, Kurt was having his child, it wasn't as though he hadn't seen every inch of him. "Yeah."

Kurt looked at him and spluttered, "You did okay, but you've still got some on your face." He grabbed the moist towelettes and signalled for Noah to sit.

As Noah sat on the chair, his legs akimbo, eyes closed and face turned slightly upwards for the countertenor's inspection, Kurt felt a wave of affection but he squashed it fiercely as he came to stand between Noah's muscular thighs and began to wipe away what was left of the motor oil. When they had been sleeping together, Kurt had always marvelled at the way Noah's skin felt, soft yet tough and resilient.

Kurt sighed as he thought about Noah's current tentative attitude towards him. He loved the other boy, and Kurt was starting to understand that Noah liked him too, but he couldn't ignore the voices at the back of his mind telling him that it was a bad idea for them to be together. His heart ached for Noah's touch and Noah's attention, but his head stubbornly conjured up scenarios that were gradually breaking Kurt's heart. Before all this, Noah had been a ladies-man and, though Kurt wasn't much better morally, that worried Kurt. What if he missed boobs? What if Santana or a girl equally sexy lured him away? Where would that leave Kurt? Where would that leave their baby?

The Thursday before, the sixth day that Noah had been working at the garage, Burt had come home and spoken to Kurt about the situation. According to his dad, Noah couldn't stop talking about him and was consistently talking to the other guys at the shop about ways to broach the subject of dating. His dad had been stern in telling him to stop leading the other boy on and Kurt felt guilty about the way he was treating the other boy after that.

"Noah..." Kurt murmured quietly, as he finished wiping the oil away and gently put a hand to the footballer's cheek. Noah opened his eyes, leaning into the caress before gingerly putting his own hand over Kurt's and, with his thumb rubbing at the countertenor's delicate skin, held it there.

"Yeah...?" Noah smiled encouragingly.

"I promise that, after we see Quinn today, we'll talk about the possibility of us." Kurt whispered as his cheeks turned pink, "I'm sorry about how I've been treating you... I feel like I'm no better than her in that respect. I'm sorry, Noah."

Puck felt his eyes widen and his heart race. At least he's gonna consider it. He felt choked with an emotion he couldn't name and he would vehemently deny the sting in his eyes. He turned his face slightly to press a soft kiss to Kurt's palm, "That means a lot, Kurt. Thanks." He gave another kiss to Kurt's hand before he smiled up at him, grinning when Kurt smiled back and ran his other hand across Noah's Mohawk.

They stayed that way for a little while, just being before Burt popped his head around the door and cleared his throat. Instead of jumping away from Noah, as he had been doing, he just looked at his dad and smiled, feeling a little more comfortable now that he was certain that the two of them would talk seriously about them.

Burt smiled at the two boys. Puckerman wasn't a bad kid. He just had a habit of making bad life choices which led to him being severely misunderstood. Burt would sooner die than let anyone know about the soft spot that was steadily growing for Noah, though, so he changed tact quite suddenly to glare at the footballer before turning his gaze to Kurt.

"It's two o'clock, if you're meeting the Quinn girl, you'll wanna leave now." He said gruffly and, with another parting glare at Noah, garumphed back to the truck he was helping Jimmy with. The boys watched him go, their hands dropping until only their fingertips touched.

"He still scares the shit outta me." Noah grumbled, pouting a little and Kurt grinned.

"What do you expect? He's a Hummel!" Kurt said and Noah laughed, "Come on, let's get this over with." He tugged gently on Noah's fingers before he pulled away completely and made his way back to the Navigator. Noah shook his head and surreptitiously appreciated the sight of the countertenor's backside – after all, he didn't want to run the risk of Burt following through on his various threats concerning Puck never having kids again.

As they slid into Kurt's car, Noah couldn't help but stare at the countertenor. When Quinn had been pregnant, she didn't appeal to Noah half as much as Kurt did, Kurt looked as though he were physically glowing, like he was radiating light from every pore of his beautiful skin. Puck had recently begun to notice that the countertenor would often gently brush the palm of his hand against his abdomen and smile softly.

It had been roughly four weeks since the scan and Kurt had told Noah that he would be considering leaving school soon for the remainder of his pregnancy. Puck was starting to get curious as to whether the pale boy was beginning to show; Kurt was incredibly slender to begin with and it wouldn't be a surprise if he was, but Noah's hands itched to check.

"Why are you staring at my stomach, Noah?"

Caught off-guard, Puck blushed and stuttered, "I... uhm, I was just wondering if you were starting to, you know, get bigger yet?"

Kurt smiled and nodded minutely, "My jeans are starting to get a little tight, but I don't think there's really anything much to see. Though that does remind me, I have another doctor's appointment next week."

"I'll be there." Noah replied immediately, reaching across the console to touch the back of Kurt's hand, just before the lights changed.

The rest of the drive was quiet, but Noah could feel the nervous energy pouring off of Kurt's frame in waves and as they pulled up to the Lima Bean, he held Kurt's hand in his own and gently rubbed his thumb over pale flesh.

"Don't worry yourself about this, Kurt. If you don't want to do this, then we don't have to." Noah said, honestly, while it was true that he felt as though he needed to tell Quinn, he understood Kurt's hesitance. It wasn't just the two of them at risk if everything went wrong... So was their baby.

Kurt sighed shakily, "If... If this goes the worst possible way, it won't affect our chat later." Noah grinned, "Don't get me wrong, Noah, if this goes tits up I will hold you responsible, but I understand how important this is to you and I respect the amount of courage this is taking for you. It's not every day that you tell your baby-mama that you got a guy pregnant."

"If this goes the worst way, Kurt, I'll protect you. I'm not just talking about checking on you in the halls from time to time, I mean... Well, I guess I mean stalking you." He laughed and, without thinking, leant forward to press a kiss to Kurt's hairline, "Come on, then. I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

As Noah slipped out of the car, Kurt felt his face flush red at the flippant, but affectionate, kiss the older boy had bestowed on him. Yeah, he thought, we're definitely gonna talk about a relationship.

"Come on, Kurt!" Puck called, smiling widely with one hand stretched towards the countertenor.

"Yeah, yeah, Noah." Kurt smiled back shakily, fingertips automatically finding the footballer's for comfort as they wandered into the coffee shop with trepidation.

Quinn was perched daintily on one of the more comfortable chairs inside the Lima Bean, her coffee resting on the table, when Kurt and Noah approached her with drinks in hand.

"Sorry we're late, Q." Noah said, wrapping an arm around her in a hug. She stiffened slightly before allowing herself to relax; no matter how much time had passed she was still wary around Puck.

"That's okay, Puck. Hello, Kurt." She turned to kiss Kurt on the cheek, since Kurt had been a part of the Cheerios the year before the two had bonded a little over their respectful dislike for Coach Sylvester. "How's working at the garage?" She asked Noah, her eyes twinkling as she sipped her drink and the boys sat down opposite her.

She was surprised to know that Kurt and Puck weren't at each other's throats as they had been in the past and actually seemed rather comfortable around the one another; though Kurt appeared to be a little tense and idly Quinn wondered whether it had something to do with whatever they had called to talk to her about.

"Yeah, it's going well, thanks." Noah smiled widely, "I'm learning a lot and actually earning some decent cash. I wouldn't have the job, though if Kurt hadn't given me a good reference." Gently, he elbowed Kurt, smiling gently and Quinn was a little taken aback when Kurt smiled back and blushed profusely. "How's everything with you?"

"Good, I s'pose. I mean, Coach is running me ragged with the excessive training and stupid dieting, but other than that, everything's peachy." She grinned at the, Kurt taking a long, nervous sip of his scalding drink and Noah glancing at the other boy worriedly. "I'm guessing that this wasn't what we were going to talk about, though, huh?" She leaned back in the chair and waited patiently as the two of them seemed to communicate with their eyes.

"No." They said in unison and Noah smiled gently at the countertenor, before continuing himself, "Not long after Kurt got back from Dalton, he and I, uh, we started messing around." He swallowed, looking at Kurt with an oddly vulnerable expression on his face, "After this, we're gonna talk about maybe becoming an item, hopefully." Kurt smiled, blushing and still looking nervous.

"I'm happy for you..." Quinn said, and she was, but she could tell that there was more to it.

"There's something else. Kurt wasn't sure whether to tell you, I don't think he's ready to tell anyone yet, but I wanted to tell you and he respects that." He reached out to take the countertenor's hand in his before staring intently at Quinn, "In the time you and I were together – well, I know we weren't together together, but in the time you were pregnant with Beth and until I got with Kurt, you meant a lot to me. I loved you." At this Kurt looked down at their joined hands, "Which is why I want to be the first to tell you that Kurt is, uhm, well, Kurt is pregnant. He's keeping the baby and it's mine." Noah was smiling and gently rubbing his thumb over the back of Kurt's hand.

Kurt gazed at her as though trying to gauge her reaction. She looked slowly between Noah and Kurt three or four times, her face blank, before she spoke, "Is this some kind of sick joke?" Puck's eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously as Kurt lowered his in defeat, but Quinn had already made up her mind on it, "Look, I might be just some 'bible girl' to you two and I obviously didn't pay much attention in sex-ed, otherwise my life wouldn't have been what it was last year, but I know that guys can't get pregnant. I don't mind that you've found each other in the 'romantic sense' but don't you dare make fun of me!"

"No, Quinn—"

"I don't want to hear it! How dare you, after you ruined my life, Puckerman?! I used to be top bitch, now I'm just the girl who got knocked-up!" She was standing as she began to get more and more agitated, her pretty face morphing into something monstrous with her anger.

Without warning, Kurt wrenched his hand from Noah's and slapped her across the face. The red mark blossomed quickly and Kurt breathed just as heavily as she.

"Don't you dare act the victim." He growled, shocking Noah by jumping straight to his defence, "You were as much a part of what happened as he was and at least he wasn't cheating on anyone by copulating with you. You were the one who claimed the baby was someone else's; you were the one who dangled fatherhood in Noah's face only to snatch it away. You're top bitch, Quinn, but for a completely different reason. You're top bitch because you got knocked up and gave her away without giving Puck a choice." Quinn glared at him, though there where shameful tears collecting on her incredible lashes, "Come on, Noah, let's go."

He held out a hand for Noah, which the older boy took and as Kurt led him out to the car, he realised, with no small amount of embarrassment, that the world was blurry with his unshed tears. At the Navigator, he turned and pulled Kurt tight against him.

"Thank you." He whispered hoarsely, through his tears, "Thank you for standing up for me. Just... Thank you."

Kurt smiled into his shoulder, tightening his own hold on the footballer as he whispered back, "You're welcome, Noah."

Quinn watched the exchange from inside the Lima Bean as she silently fumed. How dare that little queer humiliate me like that? She took out her phone and, with a smile of a positively evil nature, began to type out a message on a well-read blog. Well let's see how he likes -on says that kind of stuff to me and gets away with it.

To Puckurt-VS-Kurtofsky:

Thank you for your last review, it can be refreshing to have some constructive criticism. I tried to PM you, but it appears that you've disabled the feature.

I respect what you're saying about the Daddy = porno. I assure you that it's not meant to be read in that way and that it has a tendency to sound rather clunky, however I'm only really trying to portray Kurt's vulnerability at the moment, I'm sure it'll curve off at some point.

The thing between Kurt and Puck... Again, I'm trying to portray Kurt's vulnerability. He doesn't want to be with Noah at the moment because there's so much going on with him (though as you can see they're on their way to getting together) and after the thing with Santana (which will end up resolved). Up until this point Kurt hasn't come across someone who wants him in the way that Noah does – yeah, he's been involved in sexual relationships with, what we can assume, many guys, but he hasn't had to deal with feelings... with perhaps the exception of Karofsky, and we know how that turned out...

Quinn. If I'm honest, I totally agree with what you've said, BUT while she treated Noah like crap, we can, from 1 x 22, assume that Noah had strong feelings for Quinn regardless and that he might feel that she should know that he was expecting another – from someone else – but that it wouldn't change that Beth would forever be his first-born and that she, as Beth's mother, would always hold a special place in his heart (though not as special as Kurt's place obviously). Besides the fact that I kinda felt that the rest of this story lacked conflict with other people important to the boys. In that respect you could view the thing with Quinn as being a 'writer's device'.

You should also know that I have no plan for this story, so it might seem rather clunky in general haha.

Again, much thanks :) I hope you continue to enjoy the rest of the story and give helpful feedback.

To All: So sorry for the late update guys, I've been busy trying to sort stuff out for going to see Wicked in London with my friend of ten years (it's a surprise birthday/Christmas present for her so it's been veeeeerrrry hush hush). Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to leave a review!