Title: Thought What I Felt Was Simple
Author:
vnillaFandom: Glee
Pairing: Puck/Rachel
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 414
Summary: Rachel knows she has to make a choice.
Author's Notes: Yeah, I'm a huge sap, and apparently I'm not ashamed to show it. If you don't recognize Rachel's song, where were you in the nineties? (But seriously, I'd be happy to upload it for you.) Written for
gleeverse.
Rachel Berry isn't sure how she feels about Noah Puckerman.
She's not sorry for refusing to settle for a replacement Finn. She's not. The trouble is, instead of falling into Puck's arms and pretending they're Finn's, now she's falling into bed at night and pretending she's back with Puck, slow melting kisses pressed against pink sheets. Whenever she closes her eyes, she remembers mouth on hers and goes weak in the knees.
But she can't have fallen for him, because whenever she sees Finn, she gets the same butterflies all over again. It still feels like magic whenever they sing together, like her life really is a musical and all it takes is a song to fall in love.
But life's not a musical, some traitorous part of her whispers, and Noah sang you a song.
Maybe she's in love with two boys at the same time. It makes a strange sort of sense, like Finn and Noah both kissing her when all they want to do is touch beautiful blond Quinn. She's pretty sure the only way out of this mess is to get over them both. That's what Dad would say. Daddy would just get very sentimental about how his little girl was growing up and drag out the photo albums again.
On second thought, being in love with two boys is exactly like a musical. And, like in musicals, she has to make a choice.
Rachel stays up all night preparing, and the next day shows up to rehearsal, palms sweating in uncharacteristic nervousness as she explains to Mr. Schuester that she wants to run a new song by the club. There are some looks exchanged and some eyes rolled; her fellow club members are certain that this is only a vehicle for showing off her voice. That might hurt, a little, except that the Rachel of two months ago would have done exactly that, and worse, not even noticed anyone else's feelings.
Her friends' feelings.
Tinkles plays the opening chords, and Rachel opens her heart.
You say I only hear what I want to...
She brings the house down, as she always knew she would. No matter how abrasive her personality, Rachel Berry knows how to perform to an audience. Her particular audience is sitting there, arms folded, not applauding like the others. But the look on his face is thoughtful.
"You're a piece of work, Berry," Noah says, and she knows it's his way of apologizing.
He kisses her after practice, which is his way of saying I missed you, too.