All The Things We Do [1/2]
Title: All The Things We Do [1/2]
Pairing: Puck/Rachel
Summary: She smiles back, and he's wondering what the rules are for her against sleeping with students' parents. Not that it's a given that she wants to, but he's a curious guy and he thinks about these things. For morythemonster.
Word Count: 17,300
Disclaimer: Don't own.
"Charlie!" he shouts up the stairs, looking at his watch yet again, because fuck, he loves his kid, but she's worse than her mother for actually being on time to things. Loosely translated, that means she just isn't. Ever.
Which is fine when you're 12 and the only place you ever have to be is school, but he's actually got a job to get to, and it's his turn to bring some kind of snack for the people he's on shift with.
She comes down the stairs with her stupid plaid private school skirt on, her black maryjanes that aren't even a requirement. She just likes them, and he knows at least three of her friends got them after she did, just to copy her. Her mom's been teaching her how to do her hair in different ways lately and it looks great and everything, but she hasn't even eaten yet. As her dad, he sees that as a priority over the curls she's got falling over one shoulder.
"Stop yelling. God. I'm right here." Yeah, the attitude she gets from her mom too. "Did you make breakfast?"
Puck takes a deep breath and lets it out. He called to her 20 minutes ago and told her there were waffles. She just laughs and grabs two, wraps 'em in a paper towel and throws her backpack over her shoulder. When she asks, "Are you ready to go?" she's totally teasing, which is a good thing and makes him kiss her on the head before he tells her to get to the car.
He always drops her off at school on the mornings he has her, because they won't come get her on the bus here since her main address is her mom's place and that's the school's jurisdiction and this isn't. Which is dumb as fuck if you ask him, because it's a private school and the amount they're paying for her to go should come with fucking car service to get her to and from the huge, pretentious building.
"Who's that?" he asks when this woman in a little BMW cuts him off as he's trying to pull into the parking lot. He's just really not having a great morning here.
Charlie stuffs the last of her waffle into her mouth and rolls her eyes. "Ms. Berry. She's the music teacher. She hates me."
Charlie isn't even taking music, so he doesn't know how this woman came to hate her. He pulls up to the drop off zone and Charlie kisses his cheek and gets out of his car, and Ms. Berry, who honestly looks pretty hot in this suit he's absolutely positive she's trying not to look hot in, gives him a meek little wave and mouths 'sorry' to him, and he just gives her a curt nod before driving away.
He walks into the station five minutes late and gets a warning from the captain, but he sets donuts on the kitchen and promises he'll make his cheesecake for the crew for after dinner. Their first call comes a half hour after he gets there, and it's a grease fire in a restaurant kitchen and the kid who washes dishes gets second degree burns on his hands, and really, Puck just should have known work would be rough, too.
… … ...
"I need you to go get Charlie."
Yeah, starting sentences with 'I need' is always a great way to get someone to do something.
Plus he's naked and in bed and he's only been here for like, 40 minutes. Getting up was not on his agenda for at least the next six hours.
"Why?"
"She's sick at school and I'm about to go into a deposition."
He groans and flops onto his back. He's obviously not staying in bed. "I just got off a 24 hour shift, Santana."
He can hear the annoyance in her tone when she says, "Yeah? And your daughter is puking in the nurse's room and needs someone to pick her up."
Puck gets up and searches the room for his pants. "Why's she always my daughter when she's puking?" he mumbles, and Santana actually laughs. "I'll be there in 15."
He's fucking exhausted and he definitely needs something to keep him awake, but he's not about to brew a pot of coffee or even stop to get one when his kid's sick and needs to come home. So he grabs a protein bar and an apple, and the huge mixing bowl they keep as a puke bucket under the bathroom sink, just in case she gets sick in the car.
He really doesn't feel like finding parking in the lot and walking a fucking mile, so he throws his hazards on and parks in the pick up zone, jogs into the school and goes through the absolutely ridiculous sign-in process. He can literally see the nurse's office, but he's gotta sign in and leave his driver's licence with the administrative assistant before he can walk over to see his sick kid. It's total crap.
Charlie's lying down when he gets in there, and Ms. Berry is actually with her, which is surprising because he knows the school nurse and it isn't her. Ms. Berry instructs Charlie to sit up slowly and wait a few seconds before trying to stand, and Puck's just watching because Charlie looks like hell.
"I found her in the bathroom between periods."
"What happened?" he asks Charlie, and he's not trying to be rude, he just wants to hear his kid say words when she's that pale. Charlie just shrugs her shoulder and leans against him.
"It's probably just a bug. A few of the kids have had it lately. It seems to be going around," Ms. Berry says, tidying up the room a bit.
"Where's Kelly?" Okay, so maybe he slept with their school nurse one time. "Nurse Findlay, I mean."
Ms. Berry gives him a bit of a weird look, but it's not all that surprising given his slip. "She's off for the week."
That's obviously all the information she's going to give, and Charlie's asking if they can go home. He really doesn't mean to check out Ms. Berry's chest when she leans forward to pick up Charlie's backpack off the floor, but things happen. And she's kind of fucking gorgeous and he can still register that even under these circumstances.
"Thanks for staying with her," he says, and Ms. Berry looks at him like she wants to be offended.
"Of course."
Charlie can't seem to keep anything down, and falls asleep in her bed at like 6:30, so Santana doesn't see the point in moving her and neither does he. She still feels like crap in the morning so they spend the day on the sofa watching movies, but he uses part of that time to wonder how weird it'd be to ask more about Ms. Berry.
He couldn't even tell you why he cares, other than the fact that she's attractive and frankly it's been a while since he had sex. He's not desperate or anything, and wouldn't be even if it'd been a fucking year. He just shouldn't be thinking about sleeping with Charlie's teachers. The Kelly thing was sort of a fluke, really, since Puck works with her cousin and AJ introduced them. Yeah, he knew where she worked before he slept with her, but whatever. They were both in it for a one night thing and he's seen her a few times since and shit hasn't been weird whatsoever.
He just can't expect that to continue. His luck's not that good.
So even though Ms. Berry is fucking hot and whatever, he really shouldn't be wondering what her first name is and how the hell she's teaching at this school so young when all the other teachers are like ancient. Maybe that's all it is; she's a hot person in a sea of geriatrics and she caught his eye for that reason and no other.
… … ...
He sees her at the grocery store, though, in jeans and a blazer and she's with some dopy looking guy with floppy hair, and Puck is just so not here for watching them make out in the cheese aisle, so he leaves before she sees him and tries not to think about why he's so fucking annoyed.
… … ...
Parent teacher conferences are the biggest waste of his and Santana's time. Mostly because Charlie's like, a fucking genius, basically. They haven't had her tested yet, but she skipped second grade and her entire school career all her teachers have struggled to keep her interested in the classroom because all this shit comes so naturally to her that she just gets bored and starts distracting other kids. They tried to tell him and Santana that Charlie had ADHD or some shit, and Puck was not fucking having it. She doesn't have ADHD, she just needs a teacher who knows how to keep her engaged. Hell, if he'd had that through his time in school he may have done better, too.
But he meets Santana in the parking lot like usual, and she's still dressed from work and so is he, so it sort of makes him laugh. They could not be more different. She's power suits and a leather briefcase that's so expensive he literally spit out his beer when she told him how much it cost. He's cargo pants and a tee shirt and steel toed boots.
He sees Ms. Berry at the end of the hall before they go in to meet Charlie's math teacher, but he doesn't acknowledge her and doesn't really care what she might read into the way he puts his hand on Santana's back so she can walk into the room ahead of him.
… … ...
It's a school, right, and kids will be kids, so every once in a while one of the little shits'll pull a fire alarm and the department will have to show up. He's rarely ever on shift when it happens, and it's usually the public high school during exam week or whatever. He's not gonna lie and say his heart doesn't speed up to double time when he hears the call that the alarm's going off at his kid's school and he's gotta respond.
The thing about uniforms, too, is that you can't pick your child out of a group when they're all standing outside after being evacuated, so yeah, Puck texts her on their way over to make sure she's all right. She's always on her phone and he knows for a fact that the teachers let the kids have them with them at all times as long as they aren't using them during classes, so whatever. She says she's fine, just annoyed because people are idiots, and yeah, story of his life, right there.
Look, he knows when women are checking him out. He's a firefighter, okay? It happens pretty regularly and it usually doesn't bug him. It's really not bugging him now, as he stands in the hallway of the school in his gear and watches as Ms. Berry walks towards him. She's obviously trying to hide it, but he knows the tells. She's avoiding eye contact, looking anywhere but at him, playing with her clothes and rubbing her lips together. He's no idiot and she's totally hot for him.
"Hey," he says, and she smiles and tucks her hair behind her ear. Yeah. She probably thinks she's being subtle.
"Hi. I have no idea who did this. They're looking over surveillance video." He goes to say something, but she keeps talking and he can't get a word in. "The last student who did this was subjected to the fine that comes along with falsely pulling a fire alarm. You'd think they'd have all learned the lesson."
Puck shrugs his shoulder and gives her a grin, just to see what she'll do, really. She slips her fingers under the cuff of her shirt and plays with whatever piece of jewelry she has there..
"Kids are dumbasses."
She gasps and gets this look on her face he wants to laugh at, but she's dead serious. "They are not."
He just looks at her doubtfully. "You're with 'em all the time. You're trying to tell me not one kid in this school is a bit…"
"Stop," she sort of laughs, hissing at him. Yeah, that's pretty fucking cute. "Should I leave the building, or?"
"Nah, you're fine. The guys're just double checking everything."
She looks him up and down, but this time does absolutely nothing to hide it. "And you're doing what, exactly?"
Look, there's protocol and he's following it. She's not questioning him about it, really, or calling him out on standing around, but still. He takes his job seriously. He's the one making sure no one's coming back into the building yet, and from here he can see two of the four main doors to this place, so yeah, he's busy.
He's obviously not gonna tell her all that when instead he can bust her chops a bit.
"They elected me as the guy the teachers ogle this time," he says, smirking, and her face turns a shade of pink he wouldn't have even thought possible. She doesn't even try to defend herself, which is sort of oddly hot. "I'm kidding."
"I hope so," she says quietly, then straightens up her posture a bit and says, "Well, I'm sorry to have inconvenienced you."
"You didn't do it." He shrugs his shoulder, then glances at her from the corner of his eye. "Did you?"
"I assure you I didn't." She's totally serious, then realizes he was joking and rolls her eyes at him. He decides to take it a bit easy. He doesn't want her to think he's a dick. "Take care."
"You too."
He watches her walk away, listens to what comes through on the radio and heads for the exit when he gets the all clear and they can get the hell out of here. He'll let the captain and the school administrators deal with throwing the book at the kid who pulled the alarm, he just wants to get back to the station and have some lunch. And if he thinks about Ms. Berry and how it's really fucking dumb that he doesn't even know her first name at this point, well, it's not his fault, really, is it?
… … ...
No, it's not even close to Thanksgiving yet, but he's out here in a hoodie and jeans, climbing a ladder to put Christmas lights up. And this isn't even his fucking house. Or his religion. Look, every year Santana asks him to do this. It started because she wanted to make sure Charlie had a bunch of decorations to get excited about, and now it's just a habit or tradition or whatever. He does it on his terms, though, 'cause fuck, he is not about to be out here in the freezing cold fucking with these things. They're enough of a pain in the ass without frostbite added to the mix. And the tradition goes that he does all the work and Santana and Charlie stay inside doing fuck all. When Charlie was younger she'd come outside and mess around on the lawn while he put up the lights, but she grew out of that a couple years ago. He's not gonna say he doesn't miss it.
He doesn't know what the hell's going on, but he's just coming into the house when he hears Santana say, "Charlie, this is not okay," and then Charlie starts crying, which is what she always does when she's confronted about something. He doesn't think she does it to try to get out of trouble, if only because that's never worked for her.
"What's going on?"
Santana turns to him and her phone is in her hand, and she sort of uses it to point at him, which, whatever. "I just got a call from the school that she's been involved in some kind of prank."
His first thought is that he wants to know what the prank was.
Then; "It's Saturday." But then he remembers she went out with her friends last night and stayed over at Brooke's house. "What'd you do?"
He's not being accusatory. Like, fuck, they know she did it. He just wants to know what. Cause what his mom always said was that the punishment should fit the crime. So like if you steal an ATM from a convenience store, you aren't gonna face the same consequences as if you stole five bucks from her wallet. And it's amazing to him, truly, that he's the level headed one and Santana's the one who flies off the handle with their kid. Well, really he sort of thought they'd both be that way. But when Charlie started having tantrums and he realized the easiest way to get a kid to quit acting out is to ignore whatever they're trying to get you to pay attention to…It just isn't that hard to figure out, and once you get the hang of it, it's not that difficult to follow through on either.
So when Charlie keeps crying and saying something about how they never believe her when she says things to them, sits down on the sofa in the living room and pulls a cushion on her lap…Yeah, he recognizes that most of that's dramatics.
It takes another couple minutes for her to confess what she and her friends did, and fuck, he's not gonna say he's proud, or whatever, but it's kind of fucking brilliant, actually. It's not even that harmful or dangerous, really. They just got a shit ton of goldfish and put them in the pretentious fountain that sits in front of the school. He's pretty sure pranks are supposed to be a senior thing, so he has no idea why his daughter and her friends decided to do this, but then she babbles something about how Principal Grey keeps going on and on about how the fountain is symbolic of their school and their teaching style, and apparently Charlie thinks that's bullshit.
Puck doesn't disagree, but he can't exactly say that and let her get away with doing something she shouldn't have.
"They want all the parents to go down there so they can all agree upon a suitable punishment," Santana says, her arms crossed. She's so pissed and Puck thinks that's pretty useless. If she honestly thinks this is the shittiest thing their kid has ever done or will ever do, she's crazy. And he can't say it, but she's acting like she was some kind of angel in high school, and fuck that.
"I'll go," Puck says, in part because he knows these two need to calm down and talk about what's going on, and Santana's better at getting Charlie to open up about things. And also; "You'll lawyer them to death."
Santana rolls her eyes at him and Charlie looks like, afraid to be left alone with her mom, which is stupid. Even when Santana's pissed, she's not exactly scary, and even if she was about to ground Charlie for two weeks, that wouldn't even be the worst punishment she's ever gotten. Plus, Puck knows she won't decide on anything without talking to him first.
He grabs a coffee on the drive over to the school, because frankly he thinks this session is gonna go long and he'll need something to distract him from how much he dislikes most of Charlie's friends' parents. They're all older and richer than he is and they like to wave both those things around in his face like somehow that makes them better than him. Plus there're at least two moms who think they have a chance in hell at getting him into bed, which no.
Ms. Berry is just walking up to the building when he pulls into the parking lot. He couldn't tell you why she's here, but he doesn't mind seeing her in jeans and her little blazer, pink and blue plaid scarf around her neck and her hair in a ponytail. Actually, he's pretty sure he wouldn't mind seeing her at all, ever, in anything.
As he walks past the fountain, he sees that they haven't even taken the fish out of there yet. Probably because they have no idea what to do with 100 goldfish. It makes him laugh. It's exactly the kind of prank he'd expect from a bunch of 12 year olds. Honestly the troubling part for him is how the hell they left someone's house, bought fish, pulled the prank and got back without anyone realizing they'd left. And all he has to do is look up and see the security camera pointing right at the fountain, so they could have planned that better. Then maybe he wouldn't even have to be here for this meeting that's being held, for some reason, in the school's auditorium.
Ms. Berry is coming out of the teachers' lounge with a cup of coffee in her hand, and she smiles at him and glances at the Starbucks cup he's holding.
She falls in step beside him and explains, "I'm on the disciplinary committee."
"Ah." He nods. He hopes she's not a hardass who's gonna expel all the kids involved.
"Principal Grey is way too attached to that fountain. It was donated by an old folks' home like 20 years ago and holds no significant history or tradition." Puck just laughs. So, she doesn't really care about the prank, apparently. "I think the fish might actually add to it," she sort of giggles.
Man, this woman is so…he's not even sure if he knows what she really is, but he likes her way more than he should like any woman he's had this few encounters with. And he's confused because she's flirting with him, but then he saw her with that guy. That's not his business, and fuck, she can flirt with whomever she pleases whether or not she's got a boyfriend or husband. She's not wearing a ring, though. He checks that out when she switches and holds her coffee cup with her left hand.
"What's your name?"
She furrows her brow and looks at him. "Pardon me?"
"Your first name, I mean."
She smiles at him a bit and he holds the door to the auditorium open for her. "I figured you'd just look at the contact list the school sends home with students at the beginning of each year."
So yeah, he grins a bit and they stand there in the doorway a second longer. "So you wanted me to look."
She bows her head a bit, then looks back up at him. She so did. "It's Rachel."
"I'm Noah." She blushes a bit, so he's pretty sure she knew that already, then she rolls her eyes a bit when Principal Grey says something about getting this meeting started.
"Don't worry," Rachel whispers to him as they walk down to where everyone else is sitting. "I'm loud and stubborn, and none of these kids are going to be suspended."
Puck has to laugh at that, because she's dead serious and he thinks she's awesome.
And yeah, the kids get a week of detention and apparently Grey has enough fucking ego that he asks that they each write a letter of apology to him and to the alumni board or whatever. Puck can tell it's definitely less than what the guy wanted. Rachel just beat some sense into him when he said something about suspensions and community service. Puck shouldn't care about shit like this - and honestly he wouldn't if his kid wasn't involved - but she actually seems to care about the students more than the principal and the school itself. That means something to him. He doesn't say that to her, though, just says thanks like the rest of the parents do, and shoots her a smile before he heads out. She smiles back, and he's wondering what the rules are for her against sleeping with students' parents. Not that it's a given that she wants to, but he's a curious guy and he thinks about these things.
… … …
He's killing time at the station between calls, really, and it's too early to sleep and it'd be a dumb idea to nap at this hour. He has his iPad and he just wants to check the scores of the game and hang out a bit. But, as usual, he gets distracted by the little red bubble next to his email telling him he's got seven unread messages. He hates that little bubble and can't just leave it sitting there.
It's mostly junk, but Santana forwarded him an email from the school and he rolls his eyes but opens it anyway. Yeah, he unsubscribed from the school's newsletter. Mostly because they send 'em once a week and they're always asking parents to donate shit or volunteer or something, and he does his fair share of that when his turn comes around, but he thinks it's a bit insane that not only are they asking you to pay tuition, but you've gotta volunteer to sell tickets at sporting events. The school's prestigious and shit, but honestly he doesn't see why they can't have students do those things. He's not trying to sound lazy, but come on. Don't you think the kids would get more out of that than the parents would?
But she wouldn't be sending it to him if there wasn't something in there she wanted him to read, and he knows by now that if he doesn't check it out and she asks him later, she'll be pissed if he says no. Plus, they both take Charlie's education seriously. So he opens the email and scrolls past Principal Grey's weekly (bullshit) message and down to the part where there's a little picture of Rachel and a blurb she wrote about having open auditions for the choir and how last year's turnout was disappointing and she's hoping for a better showing this year.
Now Puck isn't saying that he's a great singer or anything, but other people have said that, and he does like to mess around on guitar a bit. He had a band in high school with his buddies and they played around for a couple years. Santana's voice, though, is fucking awesome, and Charlie definitely inherited their musical talents. She took piano lessons when she was younger but decided to stop because she wanted to try dance instead, so she's got a bit of that, too. She rarely sings around them anyone, but occasionally she'll forget that her room isn't soundproofed, or he'll hear her when they're driving and she's singing along with whatever's playing. She's good.
And he knows Santana's been on her about joining an extracurricular, because she hasn't done anything yet and she's getting to an age where it's gonna be noticeable on her transcripts or whatever if she doesn't have anything in that column. Santana's tried to get her into cheerleading, and Puck's not too proud to say he's a bit happy that Charlie has absolutely no interest in it. There're a ton of clubs she could join or whatever, but as he's thinking about it, maybe the choir could be really cool for her. It's probably not an insane practice schedule like he knows some of the sports teams at the school have. Plus she busts her ass to get good grades, so it could be good for her to have something fun at school.
He calls Santana, 'cause he's got the time right now and this way she can't accuse him of not reading the thing until she asked him to.
"What do you think?" she asks, and he can tell by the tone of her voice that she's doing probably a million things in her office.
"It's not really up to me. Or you."
"Obviously, but I think it'd be good for her. And she likes to sing. She's fucking good at it, too. You've heard her." Puck laughs a bit. "She listens to you when you talk to her. She's all pre-teen and super moody with me right now."
Yeah, that's true. Santana's got Charlie the majority of the time, really, so maybe it's that. Though his mom says that girls always butt heads with their moms. He doesn't get that at all or understand why that would be the case, but for the last six months or so Charlie's been definitely on Team Dad, which really only bugs him when there's a serious issue or whatever and he doesn't think it's fair of her to pick sides.
"I can talk to her. She thinks Ms. Berry hates her, though," he tells Santana, and yeah, he just barely catches himself before calling her Rachel.
"Why?"
He shrugs and leans forward in his chair a bit. "No idea."
"Well, work on it. It's bullshit, but we've gotta start thinking about colleges." Puck's quiet. He knew that was where this was going, but his kid is 12. She only just stopped sleeping with her teddy bear. "Take a breath, dude. We've still got time. She's just like, one of ten kids at the school who isn't on a team or club, and the teachers keep bringing it up."
"All right. I'll talk to her this weekend."
Santana's shuffling papers around, then stops a moment and he can hear her smirk when she says, "The choir director's hot, too."
"Somehow I don't think that'll matter to Charlie," he says, and he's trying to laugh it off, but fuck, he wants to agree.
"Hey. We don't know how she identifies." Santana's dead serious and he knows she's right, so he backs off.
When he's talking to Charlie about it, she basically pouts and complains about how everyone's on her back all the time, which he thinks is bullshit, first of all. He tells her that as delicately as he can. He understands how she's feeling, but he doesn't buy for a second that there's nothing going on at the school that she has any interest in. She's a great student and she could probably join any club she wanted and fit in with the other kids. And he knows her friends are involved in stuff, like cheerleading and math club and sports or whatever, so he doesn't get why she's resisting it so hard.
"Look, it doesn't have to be choir," he tells her as they drive out of the city.
Maybe it's a bit stupid, but one of the guys at the station has a brother who owns a farm and makes his own maple syrup and it's seriously the best Puck's ever had. So yeah, when he runs out, he drives out to Eric's huge expanse of land outside the city to get some. And Charlie likes to come with him 'cause there're these three sheepdogs there that she's seriously in love with. So whatever. It's sort of a thing for them to go. Plus he can't say he hates getting her out of the city so she can see something other than glass buildings and cookie-cutter houses now and then. And fuck no, going to Lima doesn't count.
"I just don't get why this is important."
Puck sighs. He's 100 per cent positive Santana's said this to Charlie at least 20 times before. "Because colleges care about this stuff." He sees her roll her eyes even though she's not even looking at him. "Look, the sooner you try these things, the sooner you'll find the ones you like, then in a couple years you'll already know and won't waste time when it really matters."
She's quiet for a second, just looking out the window, then says, "What about Ms. Berry?"
Puck grips the wheel hard. This is the part he was dreading. And he can't tell if that's because he doesn't know what to say to her or how to explain why someone wouldn't like her. Honestly he can't even fathom that, but he realizes his bias. Or if it's because he just doesn't want to think Rachel would ever actually dislike a student. Or Charlie specifically.
He's so fucked.
"Why do you think she doesn't like you anyway?"
"I dunno," Charlie mumbles, shrugging her shoulder. Helpful. "She's always on me. She's not even my teacher. And she gave me detention that time last year."
Puck laughs a bit. He can't even help it. "The time you skipped class and went off campus to get pizza? Yeah, she's obviously the worst."
(Seriously though, that was the first real 'trouble' Charlie'd ever gotten into, and he remembers he and Santana were both so pissed, but really mostly worried about it. Not because there's anything really wrong with skipping a class or two, but mostly because she wasn't where they thought she was going to be, and as a parent that's fucking terrifying.)
"Whatever. She like, thinks I'm a bad kid or something."
She turns away a bit more and looks out the window, and yeah, that's not something he wants her thinking, and it's not like he knows Rachel well at all, but even at that disciplinary meeting or whatever she certainly didn't seem like she felt Charlie was worthy of some big punishment. And that was probably the one time she could have handed one out and no one would have batted an eyelash if it was a bit unfair.
"I doubt that's what she thinks," is the best he can come up with. He pats Charlie on the shoulder, then turns up the radio when that Taylor Swift song she likes comes on. He says, "Just think about it, all right?" and she nods and he can tell she's purposely not singing along just because of the conversation they just had.
With him and Santana as parents, was there any chance she wouldn't be stubborn as hell?
… … …
His friends are mostly boring as fuck these days. He doesn't even feel bad saying so, for real. They're married or have kids or both, and his kid is significantly older than theirs are. So even when Sam suggests they get together and catch up, it's like one beer and the guy talking about potty training and whatever. Puck's not saying he doesn't care, but fuck, it's just not the same. And he doesn't expect to go out all the time and get drunk off his face, but he does miss the days when he and his friends could all go out and enjoy themselves and not have to be home to relieve the babysitter or whatever. And the rest of his buddies are on the fire department, too, and their schedules are messed up and they can rarely ever coordinate a time that works for all of them to go out.
Look, he doesn't live vicariously through his younger brother, but the guy's got no strings, no serious relationship, and an awesome job he's really good at that makes him a lot of money. And Puck doesn't mind Jake's friends either. So when he gets the call that a few of them are going out to this new lounge downtown, it doesn't take long to decide on going. Charlie's with Santana, and it's Friday and he doesn't work again til Monday. It's the perfect time to go have a few drinks and hang out with some people who'll talk about something other than children and marriage.
He's two beers in and sharing a bunch of food with the guys when he sees Rachel walk in with a couple other women. And he's sure other people would find them attractive, but surprise, he's only looking at Rachel in this sparkly skirt and loose white top. Her hair's pulled back and she usually has it down, and it's a good thing she hasn't noticed him yet, 'cause he's definitely staring.
Jake told him earlier that they're here celebrating his buddy Cable's birthday. No, that's not the guy's real name, and yes, Puck's met him before. He's an all right guy, but he thinks he's better with women than he is and of all the guys Jake hangs out with, he's the one Puck routinely calls out for being an ass when he talks about women. Puck's a lot more quiet about it than he used to be, but even when he was a teenager…Look, if he could go back in time and change the shit he said and did, he would, but what's done is done. He's an adult now and he just thinks it's shitty when Cable - or anyone - talks about women like they aren't actually people.
Puck has this very quick thought that if Cable says anything about Rachel, there's a real change he's gonna get into a fight.
He watches the waitress take a bottle of champagne over to their table, and Puck thinks the way Rachel takes a sip from her glass is really fucking sexy, and yeah, someone gave him a couple shots of whiskey, so he's feeling pretty good. Good enough that when she happens to catch his eye - maybe she noticed him earlier after all - and smiles at him, gives a little wave, he's thinking tonight could be a really awesome night.
"Who's that?" Jake asks, jutting his chin towards the table. Rachel looks away, turns back to her friends, but Puck's still watching.
"Teacher at Charlie's school."
The look on Jake's face when Puck turns back to him is basically just wide-eyed. "She's hot," Jake says, surprised. "You gonna go over?"
Puck just gives Jake a look, cause fuck, he's a bit annoyed at the insinuation that he needs encouragement or something. Like, the only time Puck has ever not approached a woman has been when it's been perfectly clear she wants to be left alone. But he doesn't say any of that, just puts his empty down on the table and gets up to walk to her table. She smiles again when she sees him coming, turns to him a bit and rests her elbow on the table. When he gets a few feet away he can see that her cheeks are a bit pink and he figures this champagne isn't the first thing she's had to drink tonight.
He smiles at her friends quickly, then turns back to her. "Hey."
"Hi." She laughs a bit, for some reason, shakes it off and takes another sip. Yeah, she's a bit tipsy. He doesn't mind. "What are you doing here?"
"That's my brother," he says, gesturing to the table. Which really doesn't narrow it down for her at all, but she nods anyway. "One of his friend's birthdays."
"I'm sorry. My manners." She puts down her glass then puts her hand on her friend's arm and says, "This is Mercedes, and this is Tina. This is Noah."
She doesn't say that his daughter goes to her school, but he figures that's on purpose and he doesn't really think it's anything these women need to know anyway. "Hey. Nice to meet you." He shakes hands because that's what he does with everyone he meets for the first time. "You look like you're celebrating."
All three women burst into laughter and Puck thinks it's sort of funny, so he smiles along with them until Rachel offers up, "We were at our friend's engagement party, but he kicked us out because I wore white."
"That's stupid," Puck says without thinking, and they all laugh again.
"So we're having champagne because that's what we were having there and…Well, I get drunk very quickly if I mix alcohol."
Mercedes rolls her eyes and looks at Puck. "She just doesn't want to tell you that she really only likes champagne."
Puck grins a bit. Rachel gasps and blushes a bit. "I…have expensive taste."
Mercedes goes, "Mhm," and Tina laughs, and fuck, they're kind of funny, but he doesn't want to sit in on the outside of their jokes all night or anything.
"I just came over to say hi," he says, and Rachel looks like she wants to pout. "I'm not trying to interrupt."
"You're not," Rachel says quickly. "You should have a drink with us."
He doesn't necessarily mean to raise his brow to her, but she seems pretty eager and he can't say he minds that.
He says, "If you're sure," and Tina's the only one who gets the joke and laughs, so yeah, he thinks she's great. He pulls up a chair and gestures to the waitress for a beer. And because he's not shy at all, and because he's sure her friends know as well as he does, he turns to Rachel and says, "You look great, by the way."
It's a pretty basic compliment, but Rachel looks to her hand holding her glass and says, "Thank you," and he can tell Mercedes is watching this interaction pretty closely.
They all talk for a bit. Mercedes apparently works as a fashion blogger, which Rachel insists is more glamourous than Mercedes is letting on. Puck doesn't know much about that world, but he'd believe Rachel, actually. And Tina is a doctor, and Puck is thinking these three women are pretty impressive, you know? It's not like he'd treat them any differently if they weren't all successful, but if makes sense to him that these would be Rachel's friends and they'd have all this stuff to talk about.
When their bottle is empty, Tina and Mercedes are saying they're going to go. Rachel works pretty hard to get them to stay, but Tina pays and Mercedes is putting on her coat.
"I'm sure Noah will hang out with you," Tina says and pulls her gloves from her hand bag.
"And make sure you get home safely," Mercedes adds. It's pretty pointed, though he thinks it's a bit shitty of her to imply that Rachel couldn't go home with someone else if she wanted to. Whatever. Safe is the key and he's all for that too, so he's not trying to be offended.
Rachel glances at him and he notices how she bites her bottom lip. He doesn't want her to be uncomfortable, and if she decides to leave with her friends he'll obviously be totally fine with that. But she's been pressing her knee against his under the table all night and not every time was an accident. And during one particularly funny story she put her hand on his upper arm and didn't take it off for a while. And yeah, these are things that some women do when they're flirting, but he also just thinks she's an affectionate, touchy person, judging by how she interacts with her friends, too.
"I'm going to stay for a bit," Rachel says to her friends, and they all hug each other before the other women walk out the door. He was sure to say how nice it was to meet them and everything, but he's also not at all upset about being left her alone at the table with Rachel. She turns to him and there's a beat of silence. "I do like things other than champagne, by the way. They just like to make fun of me because…Because." He can't tell if she's saying she wants another drink or not. "Can I buy you a beer?"
It's after 1:00 and the crowd has thinned out. A few of Jake's friends have left by now, and Puck honestly figured he'd be home by 1:30. But that was before he met up with Rachel, and no, he doesn't feel the least bit badly about abandoning the people he came with.
"Sure."
She orders one for herself, too, and fuck, she looks so hot with that in her hand as she tells him more about the party she was at earlier. He thinks they're all the things she didn't want to say when her friends were around. Apparently this is Kurt's third engagement, and not that that makes the party any less special or whatever, but Rachel sort of thought he'd be past the whole wearing white thing. She feels a bit badly, he can tell, but there's also something there beneath the surface of all that, too, like she's hurt or annoyed that something like this could have any bearing on her being able to celebrate with him and his fiancé.
"Charlie's with her mom?" Rachel asks suddenly, without any segue.
"Yeah," Puck says, then sips his beer. "We do every other weekend."
Rachel nods and he's trying to think of ways to lighten up the conversation before she asks, "When did you two split up?"
It's not that he doesn't want to talk about this with her, it's just he was hoping they'd leave this for sometime down the line. On one hand maybe it means something that she wants to know. On the other it feels a bit weird to talk about the significant details of his life with her at this point.
"We were never actually really together," he says, because fuck it, and he's had enough alcohol to think it's a good idea to just keep talking to her. She's totally confused, so he figures he's gotta clarify. "We were 18 and just fucking around when Santana got pregnant. Like, best friends kind of thing."
"Wow." Yeah, pretty sure this isn't earning him any points. "You never tried to make it work?"
Puck doesn't want to laugh, but he and Santana joke all the time about how shitty they'd be as a couple. It's sort of messed up because really, they are best friends and they do so well at that. But the thought of being in a romantic relationship with her is sort of comical. Also makes him want to punch himself in the eye.
"Naw."
"Never once?" Rachel asks sort of wide eyed.
"Well, we were dealing with pregnancy and having a kid." Rachel nods and tries to apologize. "Plus, Santana's a lesbian." She freezes in her place and looks worried or guilty or something. "It's fine. Shocks most people."
"You are…" Rachel relaxes a bit and plays with her beer bottle. "You're not what I expected."
"What'd you expect?" he asks incredulously.
She bites her lip again, but this time she's looking right at him, so that's pretty fucking hot. "I've never met someone so attractive who was actually a decent person."
Okay, pretty big compliment. But. "How do you know I'm a decent person?"
She gives him a look like he's not fooling anyone, then says something that blows his fucking mind a little. "I know your daughter."
Yeah, if he wasn't already nuts about her, he sure as hell is now.
He wants to take her home with him. He wants to know more about her. He wants to take those clothes off her and press her back against his bed. And yes, he's thinking about all this as she just sits there in front of him working on the bottom half of her beer.
When she's finished her drink, she tells him that she really should be getting home, so he settles up his tab (and though she mentioned buying him a beer, he pays for his own and she pays for hers) and helps her with her coat. They walk outside and she immediately starts looking for cabs, her phone in her hand as she says something about hoping she doesn't have to call and wait for one.
"I'll wait with you," he tells her.
"You don't have to. It's a busy street. I'm sure…" She must notice the look on his face that's telling her she's crazy if she thinks he's leaving her alone. "Okay. Suit yourself," she sort of laughs.
They stand in the cold a few moments while unavailable cabs drive past, and he's thinking about that day he saw her in the grocery store with that guy, and fuck. Somehow he's gone all night - and quite a while before that, too - without thinking about it, the way those two were interacting and looking at each other. Puck's not good at everything, but he can get a pretty good read on whether or not people are sleeping together just based on the way they act with each other.
"D'you have a boyfriend?" he asks, and fuck, it's totally out of the blue and he didn't mean for it to sound that way.
Rachel just looks at him like she's confused. "No. I mean…No."
He tilts his head. "You either do or you don't."
"I did," she says, looking to the ground. "We broke up. It's recent. I…There's no one waiting at home for me, if that's what you're asking."
He can't tell if she's waiting for an invitation or something, or if that's just the way she talks. But either way, he puts his hand on her waist and moves a little closer to her. God, she's pretty.
"Then you should come home with me." Yeah, judging by the redness in her cheeks she really wasn't expecting him to say that.
"I don't know if that's a good idea."
"Just a suggestion," he says, and she laughs a bit, which is gorgeous. He slides his hand down to her hip when she puts hers on his forearm. "You're making me crazy."
"Noah," she sort of whispers.
"Your call," he tells her, and he means it. She must be able to tell.
'Cause she leans up and kisses him, her lips cold against his and her hand moving to the back of his neck. Then she pulls away, throws her arm up to get them a cab, and sits pretty quietly next to him, her hand on his thigh as they drive to his place.
Once they're inside she makes a comment about how nice his house is, and he just puts his hands on her hips and tells her he wants to take off her clothes and make her come any way she wants him to.
Her response is to ask where the bedroom is, then step out of her heels and head for the stairs.
… … …
He doesn't want to wake her in the morning, but he wants to grab a shower then make a pot of coffee. She stirs a bit and barely opens her eyes when she feels him moving, so he tells her what he's doing and she lets out this little hum and kisses him back when he leans down to press his lips to hers.
He's thinking about her in the shower, because she's the naked woman in his bed, so what else would he be thinking about really? She's so fucking sexy, honestly. There's definitely something about her that makes him a bit wild, and he has no idea what it is. Some people might think it's the buttoned-up teacher thing, but he doesn't even think she's like some prudish librarian or whatever. She's just hot, and he couldn't get her out of his head even before last night. And yeah, fine, he's pretty happy for obvious reasons that she came home with him last night, but it also meant that he didn't have to leave last night wondering when he'd get to see her again or if spending time with her was even an option.
Plus she's amazing in bed, so there's that, too. He's good at what he does but not all women are the same, and she was not shy at all to tell him how she wanted things, and he just thinks that's so fucking hot. Maybe he's talked to Santana about sex too much over the years, but her thing is that if you can't ask your partner for what you need then you can't expect to have great sex. He's never really doubted that, but it's nice to know other women feel the same way.
Now that's not to say he didn't tease Rachel a bit, too, because hearing that little whine come from her lips when he was inside her and moving slowly was honestly so welcome. And he got to watch her come a few of times, too.
He's just really interested in her, okay? As a person, but also a person who he'd like to have sex with again. And no, those two things aren't always the same, but he's glad they are with her.
She's sitting up in bed when he gets out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist. She's got her knees pulled up, hair a bit messy but pulled over one shoulder, and she's all covered but for her shoulders and arms from this angle. And she's fucking gorgeous, all right? Like, stunning.
"This wasn't a rebound," she announces to him. Instead of like, good morning. So Puck just looks at her. "I just mean…I told you I've recently broken up with someone, but that wasn't so recent or so serious that this, between us…" She pauses, takes a breath and pushes her fingers through her hair. "I was thinking about you. Before last night."
So yeah, he doesn't know why she acts surprised when he takes his towel off and pushes her back against the bed, but she gasps a little, then giggles, then pushes the sheets out of the way so they're skin on skin again.
And he swears the way she says, "Noah, please," when his fingers are against her and she wants more would make him do whatever the fuck she wanted.
Pairing: Puck/Rachel
Summary: She smiles back, and he's wondering what the rules are for her against sleeping with students' parents. Not that it's a given that she wants to, but he's a curious guy and he thinks about these things. For morythemonster.
Word Count: 17,300
Disclaimer: Don't own.
"Charlie!" he shouts up the stairs, looking at his watch yet again, because fuck, he loves his kid, but she's worse than her mother for actually being on time to things. Loosely translated, that means she just isn't. Ever.
Which is fine when you're 12 and the only place you ever have to be is school, but he's actually got a job to get to, and it's his turn to bring some kind of snack for the people he's on shift with.
She comes down the stairs with her stupid plaid private school skirt on, her black maryjanes that aren't even a requirement. She just likes them, and he knows at least three of her friends got them after she did, just to copy her. Her mom's been teaching her how to do her hair in different ways lately and it looks great and everything, but she hasn't even eaten yet. As her dad, he sees that as a priority over the curls she's got falling over one shoulder.
"Stop yelling. God. I'm right here." Yeah, the attitude she gets from her mom too. "Did you make breakfast?"
Puck takes a deep breath and lets it out. He called to her 20 minutes ago and told her there were waffles. She just laughs and grabs two, wraps 'em in a paper towel and throws her backpack over her shoulder. When she asks, "Are you ready to go?" she's totally teasing, which is a good thing and makes him kiss her on the head before he tells her to get to the car.
He always drops her off at school on the mornings he has her, because they won't come get her on the bus here since her main address is her mom's place and that's the school's jurisdiction and this isn't. Which is dumb as fuck if you ask him, because it's a private school and the amount they're paying for her to go should come with fucking car service to get her to and from the huge, pretentious building.
"Who's that?" he asks when this woman in a little BMW cuts him off as he's trying to pull into the parking lot. He's just really not having a great morning here.
Charlie stuffs the last of her waffle into her mouth and rolls her eyes. "Ms. Berry. She's the music teacher. She hates me."
Charlie isn't even taking music, so he doesn't know how this woman came to hate her. He pulls up to the drop off zone and Charlie kisses his cheek and gets out of his car, and Ms. Berry, who honestly looks pretty hot in this suit he's absolutely positive she's trying not to look hot in, gives him a meek little wave and mouths 'sorry' to him, and he just gives her a curt nod before driving away.
He walks into the station five minutes late and gets a warning from the captain, but he sets donuts on the kitchen and promises he'll make his cheesecake for the crew for after dinner. Their first call comes a half hour after he gets there, and it's a grease fire in a restaurant kitchen and the kid who washes dishes gets second degree burns on his hands, and really, Puck just should have known work would be rough, too.
… … ...
"I need you to go get Charlie."
Yeah, starting sentences with 'I need' is always a great way to get someone to do something.
Plus he's naked and in bed and he's only been here for like, 40 minutes. Getting up was not on his agenda for at least the next six hours.
"Why?"
"She's sick at school and I'm about to go into a deposition."
He groans and flops onto his back. He's obviously not staying in bed. "I just got off a 24 hour shift, Santana."
He can hear the annoyance in her tone when she says, "Yeah? And your daughter is puking in the nurse's room and needs someone to pick her up."
Puck gets up and searches the room for his pants. "Why's she always my daughter when she's puking?" he mumbles, and Santana actually laughs. "I'll be there in 15."
He's fucking exhausted and he definitely needs something to keep him awake, but he's not about to brew a pot of coffee or even stop to get one when his kid's sick and needs to come home. So he grabs a protein bar and an apple, and the huge mixing bowl they keep as a puke bucket under the bathroom sink, just in case she gets sick in the car.
He really doesn't feel like finding parking in the lot and walking a fucking mile, so he throws his hazards on and parks in the pick up zone, jogs into the school and goes through the absolutely ridiculous sign-in process. He can literally see the nurse's office, but he's gotta sign in and leave his driver's licence with the administrative assistant before he can walk over to see his sick kid. It's total crap.
Charlie's lying down when he gets in there, and Ms. Berry is actually with her, which is surprising because he knows the school nurse and it isn't her. Ms. Berry instructs Charlie to sit up slowly and wait a few seconds before trying to stand, and Puck's just watching because Charlie looks like hell.
"I found her in the bathroom between periods."
"What happened?" he asks Charlie, and he's not trying to be rude, he just wants to hear his kid say words when she's that pale. Charlie just shrugs her shoulder and leans against him.
"It's probably just a bug. A few of the kids have had it lately. It seems to be going around," Ms. Berry says, tidying up the room a bit.
"Where's Kelly?" Okay, so maybe he slept with their school nurse one time. "Nurse Findlay, I mean."
Ms. Berry gives him a bit of a weird look, but it's not all that surprising given his slip. "She's off for the week."
That's obviously all the information she's going to give, and Charlie's asking if they can go home. He really doesn't mean to check out Ms. Berry's chest when she leans forward to pick up Charlie's backpack off the floor, but things happen. And she's kind of fucking gorgeous and he can still register that even under these circumstances.
"Thanks for staying with her," he says, and Ms. Berry looks at him like she wants to be offended.
"Of course."
Charlie can't seem to keep anything down, and falls asleep in her bed at like 6:30, so Santana doesn't see the point in moving her and neither does he. She still feels like crap in the morning so they spend the day on the sofa watching movies, but he uses part of that time to wonder how weird it'd be to ask more about Ms. Berry.
He couldn't even tell you why he cares, other than the fact that she's attractive and frankly it's been a while since he had sex. He's not desperate or anything, and wouldn't be even if it'd been a fucking year. He just shouldn't be thinking about sleeping with Charlie's teachers. The Kelly thing was sort of a fluke, really, since Puck works with her cousin and AJ introduced them. Yeah, he knew where she worked before he slept with her, but whatever. They were both in it for a one night thing and he's seen her a few times since and shit hasn't been weird whatsoever.
He just can't expect that to continue. His luck's not that good.
So even though Ms. Berry is fucking hot and whatever, he really shouldn't be wondering what her first name is and how the hell she's teaching at this school so young when all the other teachers are like ancient. Maybe that's all it is; she's a hot person in a sea of geriatrics and she caught his eye for that reason and no other.
… … ...
He sees her at the grocery store, though, in jeans and a blazer and she's with some dopy looking guy with floppy hair, and Puck is just so not here for watching them make out in the cheese aisle, so he leaves before she sees him and tries not to think about why he's so fucking annoyed.
… … ...
Parent teacher conferences are the biggest waste of his and Santana's time. Mostly because Charlie's like, a fucking genius, basically. They haven't had her tested yet, but she skipped second grade and her entire school career all her teachers have struggled to keep her interested in the classroom because all this shit comes so naturally to her that she just gets bored and starts distracting other kids. They tried to tell him and Santana that Charlie had ADHD or some shit, and Puck was not fucking having it. She doesn't have ADHD, she just needs a teacher who knows how to keep her engaged. Hell, if he'd had that through his time in school he may have done better, too.
But he meets Santana in the parking lot like usual, and she's still dressed from work and so is he, so it sort of makes him laugh. They could not be more different. She's power suits and a leather briefcase that's so expensive he literally spit out his beer when she told him how much it cost. He's cargo pants and a tee shirt and steel toed boots.
He sees Ms. Berry at the end of the hall before they go in to meet Charlie's math teacher, but he doesn't acknowledge her and doesn't really care what she might read into the way he puts his hand on Santana's back so she can walk into the room ahead of him.
… … ...
It's a school, right, and kids will be kids, so every once in a while one of the little shits'll pull a fire alarm and the department will have to show up. He's rarely ever on shift when it happens, and it's usually the public high school during exam week or whatever. He's not gonna lie and say his heart doesn't speed up to double time when he hears the call that the alarm's going off at his kid's school and he's gotta respond.
The thing about uniforms, too, is that you can't pick your child out of a group when they're all standing outside after being evacuated, so yeah, Puck texts her on their way over to make sure she's all right. She's always on her phone and he knows for a fact that the teachers let the kids have them with them at all times as long as they aren't using them during classes, so whatever. She says she's fine, just annoyed because people are idiots, and yeah, story of his life, right there.
Look, he knows when women are checking him out. He's a firefighter, okay? It happens pretty regularly and it usually doesn't bug him. It's really not bugging him now, as he stands in the hallway of the school in his gear and watches as Ms. Berry walks towards him. She's obviously trying to hide it, but he knows the tells. She's avoiding eye contact, looking anywhere but at him, playing with her clothes and rubbing her lips together. He's no idiot and she's totally hot for him.
"Hey," he says, and she smiles and tucks her hair behind her ear. Yeah. She probably thinks she's being subtle.
"Hi. I have no idea who did this. They're looking over surveillance video." He goes to say something, but she keeps talking and he can't get a word in. "The last student who did this was subjected to the fine that comes along with falsely pulling a fire alarm. You'd think they'd have all learned the lesson."
Puck shrugs his shoulder and gives her a grin, just to see what she'll do, really. She slips her fingers under the cuff of her shirt and plays with whatever piece of jewelry she has there..
"Kids are dumbasses."
She gasps and gets this look on her face he wants to laugh at, but she's dead serious. "They are not."
He just looks at her doubtfully. "You're with 'em all the time. You're trying to tell me not one kid in this school is a bit…"
"Stop," she sort of laughs, hissing at him. Yeah, that's pretty fucking cute. "Should I leave the building, or?"
"Nah, you're fine. The guys're just double checking everything."
She looks him up and down, but this time does absolutely nothing to hide it. "And you're doing what, exactly?"
Look, there's protocol and he's following it. She's not questioning him about it, really, or calling him out on standing around, but still. He takes his job seriously. He's the one making sure no one's coming back into the building yet, and from here he can see two of the four main doors to this place, so yeah, he's busy.
He's obviously not gonna tell her all that when instead he can bust her chops a bit.
"They elected me as the guy the teachers ogle this time," he says, smirking, and her face turns a shade of pink he wouldn't have even thought possible. She doesn't even try to defend herself, which is sort of oddly hot. "I'm kidding."
"I hope so," she says quietly, then straightens up her posture a bit and says, "Well, I'm sorry to have inconvenienced you."
"You didn't do it." He shrugs his shoulder, then glances at her from the corner of his eye. "Did you?"
"I assure you I didn't." She's totally serious, then realizes he was joking and rolls her eyes at him. He decides to take it a bit easy. He doesn't want her to think he's a dick. "Take care."
"You too."
He watches her walk away, listens to what comes through on the radio and heads for the exit when he gets the all clear and they can get the hell out of here. He'll let the captain and the school administrators deal with throwing the book at the kid who pulled the alarm, he just wants to get back to the station and have some lunch. And if he thinks about Ms. Berry and how it's really fucking dumb that he doesn't even know her first name at this point, well, it's not his fault, really, is it?
… … ...
No, it's not even close to Thanksgiving yet, but he's out here in a hoodie and jeans, climbing a ladder to put Christmas lights up. And this isn't even his fucking house. Or his religion. Look, every year Santana asks him to do this. It started because she wanted to make sure Charlie had a bunch of decorations to get excited about, and now it's just a habit or tradition or whatever. He does it on his terms, though, 'cause fuck, he is not about to be out here in the freezing cold fucking with these things. They're enough of a pain in the ass without frostbite added to the mix. And the tradition goes that he does all the work and Santana and Charlie stay inside doing fuck all. When Charlie was younger she'd come outside and mess around on the lawn while he put up the lights, but she grew out of that a couple years ago. He's not gonna say he doesn't miss it.
He doesn't know what the hell's going on, but he's just coming into the house when he hears Santana say, "Charlie, this is not okay," and then Charlie starts crying, which is what she always does when she's confronted about something. He doesn't think she does it to try to get out of trouble, if only because that's never worked for her.
"What's going on?"
Santana turns to him and her phone is in her hand, and she sort of uses it to point at him, which, whatever. "I just got a call from the school that she's been involved in some kind of prank."
His first thought is that he wants to know what the prank was.
Then; "It's Saturday." But then he remembers she went out with her friends last night and stayed over at Brooke's house. "What'd you do?"
He's not being accusatory. Like, fuck, they know she did it. He just wants to know what. Cause what his mom always said was that the punishment should fit the crime. So like if you steal an ATM from a convenience store, you aren't gonna face the same consequences as if you stole five bucks from her wallet. And it's amazing to him, truly, that he's the level headed one and Santana's the one who flies off the handle with their kid. Well, really he sort of thought they'd both be that way. But when Charlie started having tantrums and he realized the easiest way to get a kid to quit acting out is to ignore whatever they're trying to get you to pay attention to…It just isn't that hard to figure out, and once you get the hang of it, it's not that difficult to follow through on either.
So when Charlie keeps crying and saying something about how they never believe her when she says things to them, sits down on the sofa in the living room and pulls a cushion on her lap…Yeah, he recognizes that most of that's dramatics.
It takes another couple minutes for her to confess what she and her friends did, and fuck, he's not gonna say he's proud, or whatever, but it's kind of fucking brilliant, actually. It's not even that harmful or dangerous, really. They just got a shit ton of goldfish and put them in the pretentious fountain that sits in front of the school. He's pretty sure pranks are supposed to be a senior thing, so he has no idea why his daughter and her friends decided to do this, but then she babbles something about how Principal Grey keeps going on and on about how the fountain is symbolic of their school and their teaching style, and apparently Charlie thinks that's bullshit.
Puck doesn't disagree, but he can't exactly say that and let her get away with doing something she shouldn't have.
"They want all the parents to go down there so they can all agree upon a suitable punishment," Santana says, her arms crossed. She's so pissed and Puck thinks that's pretty useless. If she honestly thinks this is the shittiest thing their kid has ever done or will ever do, she's crazy. And he can't say it, but she's acting like she was some kind of angel in high school, and fuck that.
"I'll go," Puck says, in part because he knows these two need to calm down and talk about what's going on, and Santana's better at getting Charlie to open up about things. And also; "You'll lawyer them to death."
Santana rolls her eyes at him and Charlie looks like, afraid to be left alone with her mom, which is stupid. Even when Santana's pissed, she's not exactly scary, and even if she was about to ground Charlie for two weeks, that wouldn't even be the worst punishment she's ever gotten. Plus, Puck knows she won't decide on anything without talking to him first.
He grabs a coffee on the drive over to the school, because frankly he thinks this session is gonna go long and he'll need something to distract him from how much he dislikes most of Charlie's friends' parents. They're all older and richer than he is and they like to wave both those things around in his face like somehow that makes them better than him. Plus there're at least two moms who think they have a chance in hell at getting him into bed, which no.
Ms. Berry is just walking up to the building when he pulls into the parking lot. He couldn't tell you why she's here, but he doesn't mind seeing her in jeans and her little blazer, pink and blue plaid scarf around her neck and her hair in a ponytail. Actually, he's pretty sure he wouldn't mind seeing her at all, ever, in anything.
As he walks past the fountain, he sees that they haven't even taken the fish out of there yet. Probably because they have no idea what to do with 100 goldfish. It makes him laugh. It's exactly the kind of prank he'd expect from a bunch of 12 year olds. Honestly the troubling part for him is how the hell they left someone's house, bought fish, pulled the prank and got back without anyone realizing they'd left. And all he has to do is look up and see the security camera pointing right at the fountain, so they could have planned that better. Then maybe he wouldn't even have to be here for this meeting that's being held, for some reason, in the school's auditorium.
Ms. Berry is coming out of the teachers' lounge with a cup of coffee in her hand, and she smiles at him and glances at the Starbucks cup he's holding.
She falls in step beside him and explains, "I'm on the disciplinary committee."
"Ah." He nods. He hopes she's not a hardass who's gonna expel all the kids involved.
"Principal Grey is way too attached to that fountain. It was donated by an old folks' home like 20 years ago and holds no significant history or tradition." Puck just laughs. So, she doesn't really care about the prank, apparently. "I think the fish might actually add to it," she sort of giggles.
Man, this woman is so…he's not even sure if he knows what she really is, but he likes her way more than he should like any woman he's had this few encounters with. And he's confused because she's flirting with him, but then he saw her with that guy. That's not his business, and fuck, she can flirt with whomever she pleases whether or not she's got a boyfriend or husband. She's not wearing a ring, though. He checks that out when she switches and holds her coffee cup with her left hand.
"What's your name?"
She furrows her brow and looks at him. "Pardon me?"
"Your first name, I mean."
She smiles at him a bit and he holds the door to the auditorium open for her. "I figured you'd just look at the contact list the school sends home with students at the beginning of each year."
So yeah, he grins a bit and they stand there in the doorway a second longer. "So you wanted me to look."
She bows her head a bit, then looks back up at him. She so did. "It's Rachel."
"I'm Noah." She blushes a bit, so he's pretty sure she knew that already, then she rolls her eyes a bit when Principal Grey says something about getting this meeting started.
"Don't worry," Rachel whispers to him as they walk down to where everyone else is sitting. "I'm loud and stubborn, and none of these kids are going to be suspended."
Puck has to laugh at that, because she's dead serious and he thinks she's awesome.
And yeah, the kids get a week of detention and apparently Grey has enough fucking ego that he asks that they each write a letter of apology to him and to the alumni board or whatever. Puck can tell it's definitely less than what the guy wanted. Rachel just beat some sense into him when he said something about suspensions and community service. Puck shouldn't care about shit like this - and honestly he wouldn't if his kid wasn't involved - but she actually seems to care about the students more than the principal and the school itself. That means something to him. He doesn't say that to her, though, just says thanks like the rest of the parents do, and shoots her a smile before he heads out. She smiles back, and he's wondering what the rules are for her against sleeping with students' parents. Not that it's a given that she wants to, but he's a curious guy and he thinks about these things.
… … …
He's killing time at the station between calls, really, and it's too early to sleep and it'd be a dumb idea to nap at this hour. He has his iPad and he just wants to check the scores of the game and hang out a bit. But, as usual, he gets distracted by the little red bubble next to his email telling him he's got seven unread messages. He hates that little bubble and can't just leave it sitting there.
It's mostly junk, but Santana forwarded him an email from the school and he rolls his eyes but opens it anyway. Yeah, he unsubscribed from the school's newsletter. Mostly because they send 'em once a week and they're always asking parents to donate shit or volunteer or something, and he does his fair share of that when his turn comes around, but he thinks it's a bit insane that not only are they asking you to pay tuition, but you've gotta volunteer to sell tickets at sporting events. The school's prestigious and shit, but honestly he doesn't see why they can't have students do those things. He's not trying to sound lazy, but come on. Don't you think the kids would get more out of that than the parents would?
But she wouldn't be sending it to him if there wasn't something in there she wanted him to read, and he knows by now that if he doesn't check it out and she asks him later, she'll be pissed if he says no. Plus, they both take Charlie's education seriously. So he opens the email and scrolls past Principal Grey's weekly (bullshit) message and down to the part where there's a little picture of Rachel and a blurb she wrote about having open auditions for the choir and how last year's turnout was disappointing and she's hoping for a better showing this year.
Now Puck isn't saying that he's a great singer or anything, but other people have said that, and he does like to mess around on guitar a bit. He had a band in high school with his buddies and they played around for a couple years. Santana's voice, though, is fucking awesome, and Charlie definitely inherited their musical talents. She took piano lessons when she was younger but decided to stop because she wanted to try dance instead, so she's got a bit of that, too. She rarely sings around them anyone, but occasionally she'll forget that her room isn't soundproofed, or he'll hear her when they're driving and she's singing along with whatever's playing. She's good.
And he knows Santana's been on her about joining an extracurricular, because she hasn't done anything yet and she's getting to an age where it's gonna be noticeable on her transcripts or whatever if she doesn't have anything in that column. Santana's tried to get her into cheerleading, and Puck's not too proud to say he's a bit happy that Charlie has absolutely no interest in it. There're a ton of clubs she could join or whatever, but as he's thinking about it, maybe the choir could be really cool for her. It's probably not an insane practice schedule like he knows some of the sports teams at the school have. Plus she busts her ass to get good grades, so it could be good for her to have something fun at school.
He calls Santana, 'cause he's got the time right now and this way she can't accuse him of not reading the thing until she asked him to.
"What do you think?" she asks, and he can tell by the tone of her voice that she's doing probably a million things in her office.
"It's not really up to me. Or you."
"Obviously, but I think it'd be good for her. And she likes to sing. She's fucking good at it, too. You've heard her." Puck laughs a bit. "She listens to you when you talk to her. She's all pre-teen and super moody with me right now."
Yeah, that's true. Santana's got Charlie the majority of the time, really, so maybe it's that. Though his mom says that girls always butt heads with their moms. He doesn't get that at all or understand why that would be the case, but for the last six months or so Charlie's been definitely on Team Dad, which really only bugs him when there's a serious issue or whatever and he doesn't think it's fair of her to pick sides.
"I can talk to her. She thinks Ms. Berry hates her, though," he tells Santana, and yeah, he just barely catches himself before calling her Rachel.
"Why?"
He shrugs and leans forward in his chair a bit. "No idea."
"Well, work on it. It's bullshit, but we've gotta start thinking about colleges." Puck's quiet. He knew that was where this was going, but his kid is 12. She only just stopped sleeping with her teddy bear. "Take a breath, dude. We've still got time. She's just like, one of ten kids at the school who isn't on a team or club, and the teachers keep bringing it up."
"All right. I'll talk to her this weekend."
Santana's shuffling papers around, then stops a moment and he can hear her smirk when she says, "The choir director's hot, too."
"Somehow I don't think that'll matter to Charlie," he says, and he's trying to laugh it off, but fuck, he wants to agree.
"Hey. We don't know how she identifies." Santana's dead serious and he knows she's right, so he backs off.
When he's talking to Charlie about it, she basically pouts and complains about how everyone's on her back all the time, which he thinks is bullshit, first of all. He tells her that as delicately as he can. He understands how she's feeling, but he doesn't buy for a second that there's nothing going on at the school that she has any interest in. She's a great student and she could probably join any club she wanted and fit in with the other kids. And he knows her friends are involved in stuff, like cheerleading and math club and sports or whatever, so he doesn't get why she's resisting it so hard.
"Look, it doesn't have to be choir," he tells her as they drive out of the city.
Maybe it's a bit stupid, but one of the guys at the station has a brother who owns a farm and makes his own maple syrup and it's seriously the best Puck's ever had. So yeah, when he runs out, he drives out to Eric's huge expanse of land outside the city to get some. And Charlie likes to come with him 'cause there're these three sheepdogs there that she's seriously in love with. So whatever. It's sort of a thing for them to go. Plus he can't say he hates getting her out of the city so she can see something other than glass buildings and cookie-cutter houses now and then. And fuck no, going to Lima doesn't count.
"I just don't get why this is important."
Puck sighs. He's 100 per cent positive Santana's said this to Charlie at least 20 times before. "Because colleges care about this stuff." He sees her roll her eyes even though she's not even looking at him. "Look, the sooner you try these things, the sooner you'll find the ones you like, then in a couple years you'll already know and won't waste time when it really matters."
She's quiet for a second, just looking out the window, then says, "What about Ms. Berry?"
Puck grips the wheel hard. This is the part he was dreading. And he can't tell if that's because he doesn't know what to say to her or how to explain why someone wouldn't like her. Honestly he can't even fathom that, but he realizes his bias. Or if it's because he just doesn't want to think Rachel would ever actually dislike a student. Or Charlie specifically.
He's so fucked.
"Why do you think she doesn't like you anyway?"
"I dunno," Charlie mumbles, shrugging her shoulder. Helpful. "She's always on me. She's not even my teacher. And she gave me detention that time last year."
Puck laughs a bit. He can't even help it. "The time you skipped class and went off campus to get pizza? Yeah, she's obviously the worst."
(Seriously though, that was the first real 'trouble' Charlie'd ever gotten into, and he remembers he and Santana were both so pissed, but really mostly worried about it. Not because there's anything really wrong with skipping a class or two, but mostly because she wasn't where they thought she was going to be, and as a parent that's fucking terrifying.)
"Whatever. She like, thinks I'm a bad kid or something."
She turns away a bit more and looks out the window, and yeah, that's not something he wants her thinking, and it's not like he knows Rachel well at all, but even at that disciplinary meeting or whatever she certainly didn't seem like she felt Charlie was worthy of some big punishment. And that was probably the one time she could have handed one out and no one would have batted an eyelash if it was a bit unfair.
"I doubt that's what she thinks," is the best he can come up with. He pats Charlie on the shoulder, then turns up the radio when that Taylor Swift song she likes comes on. He says, "Just think about it, all right?" and she nods and he can tell she's purposely not singing along just because of the conversation they just had.
With him and Santana as parents, was there any chance she wouldn't be stubborn as hell?
… … …
His friends are mostly boring as fuck these days. He doesn't even feel bad saying so, for real. They're married or have kids or both, and his kid is significantly older than theirs are. So even when Sam suggests they get together and catch up, it's like one beer and the guy talking about potty training and whatever. Puck's not saying he doesn't care, but fuck, it's just not the same. And he doesn't expect to go out all the time and get drunk off his face, but he does miss the days when he and his friends could all go out and enjoy themselves and not have to be home to relieve the babysitter or whatever. And the rest of his buddies are on the fire department, too, and their schedules are messed up and they can rarely ever coordinate a time that works for all of them to go out.
Look, he doesn't live vicariously through his younger brother, but the guy's got no strings, no serious relationship, and an awesome job he's really good at that makes him a lot of money. And Puck doesn't mind Jake's friends either. So when he gets the call that a few of them are going out to this new lounge downtown, it doesn't take long to decide on going. Charlie's with Santana, and it's Friday and he doesn't work again til Monday. It's the perfect time to go have a few drinks and hang out with some people who'll talk about something other than children and marriage.
He's two beers in and sharing a bunch of food with the guys when he sees Rachel walk in with a couple other women. And he's sure other people would find them attractive, but surprise, he's only looking at Rachel in this sparkly skirt and loose white top. Her hair's pulled back and she usually has it down, and it's a good thing she hasn't noticed him yet, 'cause he's definitely staring.
Jake told him earlier that they're here celebrating his buddy Cable's birthday. No, that's not the guy's real name, and yes, Puck's met him before. He's an all right guy, but he thinks he's better with women than he is and of all the guys Jake hangs out with, he's the one Puck routinely calls out for being an ass when he talks about women. Puck's a lot more quiet about it than he used to be, but even when he was a teenager…Look, if he could go back in time and change the shit he said and did, he would, but what's done is done. He's an adult now and he just thinks it's shitty when Cable - or anyone - talks about women like they aren't actually people.
Puck has this very quick thought that if Cable says anything about Rachel, there's a real change he's gonna get into a fight.
He watches the waitress take a bottle of champagne over to their table, and Puck thinks the way Rachel takes a sip from her glass is really fucking sexy, and yeah, someone gave him a couple shots of whiskey, so he's feeling pretty good. Good enough that when she happens to catch his eye - maybe she noticed him earlier after all - and smiles at him, gives a little wave, he's thinking tonight could be a really awesome night.
"Who's that?" Jake asks, jutting his chin towards the table. Rachel looks away, turns back to her friends, but Puck's still watching.
"Teacher at Charlie's school."
The look on Jake's face when Puck turns back to him is basically just wide-eyed. "She's hot," Jake says, surprised. "You gonna go over?"
Puck just gives Jake a look, cause fuck, he's a bit annoyed at the insinuation that he needs encouragement or something. Like, the only time Puck has ever not approached a woman has been when it's been perfectly clear she wants to be left alone. But he doesn't say any of that, just puts his empty down on the table and gets up to walk to her table. She smiles again when she sees him coming, turns to him a bit and rests her elbow on the table. When he gets a few feet away he can see that her cheeks are a bit pink and he figures this champagne isn't the first thing she's had to drink tonight.
He smiles at her friends quickly, then turns back to her. "Hey."
"Hi." She laughs a bit, for some reason, shakes it off and takes another sip. Yeah, she's a bit tipsy. He doesn't mind. "What are you doing here?"
"That's my brother," he says, gesturing to the table. Which really doesn't narrow it down for her at all, but she nods anyway. "One of his friend's birthdays."
"I'm sorry. My manners." She puts down her glass then puts her hand on her friend's arm and says, "This is Mercedes, and this is Tina. This is Noah."
She doesn't say that his daughter goes to her school, but he figures that's on purpose and he doesn't really think it's anything these women need to know anyway. "Hey. Nice to meet you." He shakes hands because that's what he does with everyone he meets for the first time. "You look like you're celebrating."
All three women burst into laughter and Puck thinks it's sort of funny, so he smiles along with them until Rachel offers up, "We were at our friend's engagement party, but he kicked us out because I wore white."
"That's stupid," Puck says without thinking, and they all laugh again.
"So we're having champagne because that's what we were having there and…Well, I get drunk very quickly if I mix alcohol."
Mercedes rolls her eyes and looks at Puck. "She just doesn't want to tell you that she really only likes champagne."
Puck grins a bit. Rachel gasps and blushes a bit. "I…have expensive taste."
Mercedes goes, "Mhm," and Tina laughs, and fuck, they're kind of funny, but he doesn't want to sit in on the outside of their jokes all night or anything.
"I just came over to say hi," he says, and Rachel looks like she wants to pout. "I'm not trying to interrupt."
"You're not," Rachel says quickly. "You should have a drink with us."
He doesn't necessarily mean to raise his brow to her, but she seems pretty eager and he can't say he minds that.
He says, "If you're sure," and Tina's the only one who gets the joke and laughs, so yeah, he thinks she's great. He pulls up a chair and gestures to the waitress for a beer. And because he's not shy at all, and because he's sure her friends know as well as he does, he turns to Rachel and says, "You look great, by the way."
It's a pretty basic compliment, but Rachel looks to her hand holding her glass and says, "Thank you," and he can tell Mercedes is watching this interaction pretty closely.
They all talk for a bit. Mercedes apparently works as a fashion blogger, which Rachel insists is more glamourous than Mercedes is letting on. Puck doesn't know much about that world, but he'd believe Rachel, actually. And Tina is a doctor, and Puck is thinking these three women are pretty impressive, you know? It's not like he'd treat them any differently if they weren't all successful, but if makes sense to him that these would be Rachel's friends and they'd have all this stuff to talk about.
When their bottle is empty, Tina and Mercedes are saying they're going to go. Rachel works pretty hard to get them to stay, but Tina pays and Mercedes is putting on her coat.
"I'm sure Noah will hang out with you," Tina says and pulls her gloves from her hand bag.
"And make sure you get home safely," Mercedes adds. It's pretty pointed, though he thinks it's a bit shitty of her to imply that Rachel couldn't go home with someone else if she wanted to. Whatever. Safe is the key and he's all for that too, so he's not trying to be offended.
Rachel glances at him and he notices how she bites her bottom lip. He doesn't want her to be uncomfortable, and if she decides to leave with her friends he'll obviously be totally fine with that. But she's been pressing her knee against his under the table all night and not every time was an accident. And during one particularly funny story she put her hand on his upper arm and didn't take it off for a while. And yeah, these are things that some women do when they're flirting, but he also just thinks she's an affectionate, touchy person, judging by how she interacts with her friends, too.
"I'm going to stay for a bit," Rachel says to her friends, and they all hug each other before the other women walk out the door. He was sure to say how nice it was to meet them and everything, but he's also not at all upset about being left her alone at the table with Rachel. She turns to him and there's a beat of silence. "I do like things other than champagne, by the way. They just like to make fun of me because…Because." He can't tell if she's saying she wants another drink or not. "Can I buy you a beer?"
It's after 1:00 and the crowd has thinned out. A few of Jake's friends have left by now, and Puck honestly figured he'd be home by 1:30. But that was before he met up with Rachel, and no, he doesn't feel the least bit badly about abandoning the people he came with.
"Sure."
She orders one for herself, too, and fuck, she looks so hot with that in her hand as she tells him more about the party she was at earlier. He thinks they're all the things she didn't want to say when her friends were around. Apparently this is Kurt's third engagement, and not that that makes the party any less special or whatever, but Rachel sort of thought he'd be past the whole wearing white thing. She feels a bit badly, he can tell, but there's also something there beneath the surface of all that, too, like she's hurt or annoyed that something like this could have any bearing on her being able to celebrate with him and his fiancé.
"Charlie's with her mom?" Rachel asks suddenly, without any segue.
"Yeah," Puck says, then sips his beer. "We do every other weekend."
Rachel nods and he's trying to think of ways to lighten up the conversation before she asks, "When did you two split up?"
It's not that he doesn't want to talk about this with her, it's just he was hoping they'd leave this for sometime down the line. On one hand maybe it means something that she wants to know. On the other it feels a bit weird to talk about the significant details of his life with her at this point.
"We were never actually really together," he says, because fuck it, and he's had enough alcohol to think it's a good idea to just keep talking to her. She's totally confused, so he figures he's gotta clarify. "We were 18 and just fucking around when Santana got pregnant. Like, best friends kind of thing."
"Wow." Yeah, pretty sure this isn't earning him any points. "You never tried to make it work?"
Puck doesn't want to laugh, but he and Santana joke all the time about how shitty they'd be as a couple. It's sort of messed up because really, they are best friends and they do so well at that. But the thought of being in a romantic relationship with her is sort of comical. Also makes him want to punch himself in the eye.
"Naw."
"Never once?" Rachel asks sort of wide eyed.
"Well, we were dealing with pregnancy and having a kid." Rachel nods and tries to apologize. "Plus, Santana's a lesbian." She freezes in her place and looks worried or guilty or something. "It's fine. Shocks most people."
"You are…" Rachel relaxes a bit and plays with her beer bottle. "You're not what I expected."
"What'd you expect?" he asks incredulously.
She bites her lip again, but this time she's looking right at him, so that's pretty fucking hot. "I've never met someone so attractive who was actually a decent person."
Okay, pretty big compliment. But. "How do you know I'm a decent person?"
She gives him a look like he's not fooling anyone, then says something that blows his fucking mind a little. "I know your daughter."
Yeah, if he wasn't already nuts about her, he sure as hell is now.
He wants to take her home with him. He wants to know more about her. He wants to take those clothes off her and press her back against his bed. And yes, he's thinking about all this as she just sits there in front of him working on the bottom half of her beer.
When she's finished her drink, she tells him that she really should be getting home, so he settles up his tab (and though she mentioned buying him a beer, he pays for his own and she pays for hers) and helps her with her coat. They walk outside and she immediately starts looking for cabs, her phone in her hand as she says something about hoping she doesn't have to call and wait for one.
"I'll wait with you," he tells her.
"You don't have to. It's a busy street. I'm sure…" She must notice the look on his face that's telling her she's crazy if she thinks he's leaving her alone. "Okay. Suit yourself," she sort of laughs.
They stand in the cold a few moments while unavailable cabs drive past, and he's thinking about that day he saw her in the grocery store with that guy, and fuck. Somehow he's gone all night - and quite a while before that, too - without thinking about it, the way those two were interacting and looking at each other. Puck's not good at everything, but he can get a pretty good read on whether or not people are sleeping together just based on the way they act with each other.
"D'you have a boyfriend?" he asks, and fuck, it's totally out of the blue and he didn't mean for it to sound that way.
Rachel just looks at him like she's confused. "No. I mean…No."
He tilts his head. "You either do or you don't."
"I did," she says, looking to the ground. "We broke up. It's recent. I…There's no one waiting at home for me, if that's what you're asking."
He can't tell if she's waiting for an invitation or something, or if that's just the way she talks. But either way, he puts his hand on her waist and moves a little closer to her. God, she's pretty.
"Then you should come home with me." Yeah, judging by the redness in her cheeks she really wasn't expecting him to say that.
"I don't know if that's a good idea."
"Just a suggestion," he says, and she laughs a bit, which is gorgeous. He slides his hand down to her hip when she puts hers on his forearm. "You're making me crazy."
"Noah," she sort of whispers.
"Your call," he tells her, and he means it. She must be able to tell.
'Cause she leans up and kisses him, her lips cold against his and her hand moving to the back of his neck. Then she pulls away, throws her arm up to get them a cab, and sits pretty quietly next to him, her hand on his thigh as they drive to his place.
Once they're inside she makes a comment about how nice his house is, and he just puts his hands on her hips and tells her he wants to take off her clothes and make her come any way she wants him to.
Her response is to ask where the bedroom is, then step out of her heels and head for the stairs.
… … …
He doesn't want to wake her in the morning, but he wants to grab a shower then make a pot of coffee. She stirs a bit and barely opens her eyes when she feels him moving, so he tells her what he's doing and she lets out this little hum and kisses him back when he leans down to press his lips to hers.
He's thinking about her in the shower, because she's the naked woman in his bed, so what else would he be thinking about really? She's so fucking sexy, honestly. There's definitely something about her that makes him a bit wild, and he has no idea what it is. Some people might think it's the buttoned-up teacher thing, but he doesn't even think she's like some prudish librarian or whatever. She's just hot, and he couldn't get her out of his head even before last night. And yeah, fine, he's pretty happy for obvious reasons that she came home with him last night, but it also meant that he didn't have to leave last night wondering when he'd get to see her again or if spending time with her was even an option.
Plus she's amazing in bed, so there's that, too. He's good at what he does but not all women are the same, and she was not shy at all to tell him how she wanted things, and he just thinks that's so fucking hot. Maybe he's talked to Santana about sex too much over the years, but her thing is that if you can't ask your partner for what you need then you can't expect to have great sex. He's never really doubted that, but it's nice to know other women feel the same way.
Now that's not to say he didn't tease Rachel a bit, too, because hearing that little whine come from her lips when he was inside her and moving slowly was honestly so welcome. And he got to watch her come a few of times, too.
He's just really interested in her, okay? As a person, but also a person who he'd like to have sex with again. And no, those two things aren't always the same, but he's glad they are with her.
She's sitting up in bed when he gets out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist. She's got her knees pulled up, hair a bit messy but pulled over one shoulder, and she's all covered but for her shoulders and arms from this angle. And she's fucking gorgeous, all right? Like, stunning.
"This wasn't a rebound," she announces to him. Instead of like, good morning. So Puck just looks at her. "I just mean…I told you I've recently broken up with someone, but that wasn't so recent or so serious that this, between us…" She pauses, takes a breath and pushes her fingers through her hair. "I was thinking about you. Before last night."
So yeah, he doesn't know why she acts surprised when he takes his towel off and pushes her back against the bed, but she gasps a little, then giggles, then pushes the sheets out of the way so they're skin on skin again.
And he swears the way she says, "Noah, please," when his fingers are against her and she wants more would make him do whatever the fuck she wanted.