countpuckula | Getting Good at Starting Over

For not the first time since this idea had popped into his head Puck was wondering if this whole plan was stupid. Sure, his mother had been driving him crazy, but what did he really think living with Rachel would do to him?

Alright, so here’s the story. His final year of high school should have been awesome; he should have ruled the school and flattened any punk who dared say anything about him not being a badass, but then Shelby had showed up with Beth and everything had gone to hell. She had let him see his daughter, let him spend time with her and bond with her and even fall in love with her, Shelby this time, not Beth. He loved them both and started to make up this whole little fantasy family in his head, where they would hook up for real and he would continue his pool business and they would raise Beth together. Unfortunately Shelby wasn’t down for this at all and had skipped the state again, taking his baby and his heart with her.

Of course nobody had noticed. Everyone had been so worried about Santana and Quinn and even the marble-mouthed foreigner that nobody could even understand, and Puck had just faded into the background. Then graduation came and everyone went the separate ways. Rachel and Kurt to the bright lights of New York, Quinn to Yale, Finn off to boot camp and Puck... on the long road to nowhere.

He still had his pool business, but there were only so many pools in Ohio, and only so many months that were good for swimming, so when Finn had joined the army Puck had taken his place at Burt’s garage. For the following year that was his life, making what money he could, still living with his mother, and becoming more and more like the person he had never wanted to be. Almost a year to the day since graduation it had been a fight with his sister that had finally driven it all home.

A Lima Loser. She had called him a Lima Loser. He had become what he had always swore he never would, the one person he swore he would never be like: his father. That very day he had given Burt his two week’s notice, had closed down his pool cleaning business and had made all the arrangements. Two weeks later he stood at Rachel Berry’s door, dufflebag in hand. He had buzzed all the other apartments in the building simultaneously until someone let him in so she wouldn’t know he was coming until they were face to face.

Raising his hand, he knocked on the door.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

countpuckula

Puck’s expression darkened slightly at the very mention of staying in Lima. Sure, he’d been making good money there, but what else did he have going for him? Sure, there was always a cougar who required his services, both professional and not, but even that had started to wear thin. Where was the challenge? Maybe Lauren had ruined him with her playing hard to get. Besides, there were only so many suspicious husbands he could dodge before they all knew and went hunting for his head.

“Maybe money isn’t everything,” he tried to throw back casually, passing Rachel and heading for the door again. Opening it, he stepped out into the hallway to grab the guitar case he had left leaning against the wall outside. “Come on, Rach. You know how boring Lima can be,” he continued talking as he carried the case back inside. He had decided to leave his video games home, because while Rachel might let him crash with her for a few weeks if he was looking for work he knew there was no way she would let him sit on her couch and play games all day. There had been no way, though, that he would leave his guitar. It was his most prized possession, one of the few things he owned that he truly cared about, and hey, if he couldn’t find a job he could always play on the streets somewhere like that Naked Cowboy dude.

From:

acontrollist

His casual throwback is enough to shut Rachel up, though. She knows she's missing something now, but apparently he isn't ready to talk about it. No matter how boring Lima could be, New York wasn't just a place you picked up and moved to with no job or prospects just because you were...bored. Or maybe it was, if you were Noah Puckerman. "I suppose so..." She nods.

"Well. I was...just about to order dinner." Because he doesn't want to talk about why he came and she's learned by now that she can't force anything out of him, so she's unsure what to talk about now.

From:

countpuckula

Carefully leaning his guitar against the wall, his back to Rachel, Puck nearly sighed in relief when she let the topic drop. When she really wanted to be he knew she could be stubborn as hell, but then so could he. They had butted heads more than once in the past do to this.

Still, even Puck knew this would not be the end of the interrogation. She was letting him off the hook for now, but she would bring it up again and again until he told her the truth, which he would... someday. Maybe. Just not now.

“Great, I’m starving!” he replied, fixing her with a wide grin as he flopped down unceremoniously on the sofa. “What are we having?”

From:

acontrollist

This was absolutely not the end of the interrogation. But she figured maybe she'd at least let him get settled in before she started jumping on his back to figure out why he was there. To be honest, she was a little worried about him. She'd always thought Noah had the potential to get out of Lima. Had always gotten the vibe that he wanted more. But...well. He'd never done anything about it until now.

And she wonders what could have been drastic enough to make him do so so suddenly.

Rolling her eyes, she moves to sit back down in her spot, reaching for her cell phone on the coffee table. "Thai. Objections?"

From:

countpuckula

For a moment she continued to give him that look, the one that said she was trying to see right through him and figure him all out, but he did his usual show of ignoring it, or more aptly pretended like he didn’t even notice. Instead he kicked off his boots and stretched his legs out, propping his socked feet up on the coffee table and crossing his ankles.

“Nope,” Puck replied, lacing his fingers together behind his head. “You know I like it hot.” For a brief moment he let his eyes roam around the apartment with a mixture of awe and jealousy. It must be nice to have two rich dads would could put her up with a two bedroom in New York City. From what he had heard he would be lucky to be able to afford a room in a place this size with three other people, and even then he’d probably have to work two jobs.

From:

acontrollist

"Feet off." She pinches his thigh with one hand, dialing the number for the Thai place with the other. Rachel's Dads were helping pay rent and utilities, but extra stuff had to come out of her trust fund or any money she picked up herself. And if her GPA dropped below a 3.5, she'd have to get a job. But yeah, she still had it pretty cushy and she wasn't even going to deny that. But her Dads also didn't have to pay for tuition or books, since Rachel was on merit scholarships, both for her grades in high school and her voice.

After placing their orders, she sits the phone back down on the table. "Do you want to put your stuff in the spare room? I mean, I know you'll be sleeping out here, but you'll have more space that way."

From:

countpuckula

“Ow!” Puck yelped when Rachel pinched him, but he did what he was told without further complaint. Dropping his feet back to the floor, he shot her a quick dirty look but she was already rambling off food orders so he had to suck it up and get his say in or be stuck with something he didn’t want. Not that he really cared what he ate, especially right at this moment. It had been hours since he’d eaten last and his stomach was soon going to start devouring itself if he didn’t give it something to gnaw on soon.

“Yeah, sure,” he replied to her question, getting back to his feet. She probably just wanted his stuff out of the way herself, her place was incredibly clean and if he even opened his duffle bag and started looking for anything in it it would suddenly look like a bomb went off out here. Puck didn’t do clean and tidy well.

Picking up his stuff, he opened the door and went into the first door he came to, which just happened to be her bedroom.

From:

acontrollist

She gets a sick sense of satisfaction out of his yelp, smirking to herself as she orders their food. Puck usually takes such pride in being this big, macho guy, so the fact that she can get him to react, even as tiny as she is, makes her grin. But she's also almost positive that she can hear his stomach growling so she's not going to delay getting him his food any longer. She wants to ask him when the last time he ate was, but she thinks maybe he'd avoid it just like he's been avoiding everything else.

Standing, Rachel moves to follow him so that she can direct him to the guest room and show him where the bathroom is, but he opens the door to her bedroom before she can say anything. Moving behind him, she watches his reflection in the mirrored wall directly across from him, folding her arms.

"That's my bedroom. Obviously."

From:

countpuckula

Rachel had always had a very girly, childish room, which had somehow managed to be both eyeroll inducing and kind of hot. Actually, that seemed to describe Rachel in a lot of ways. She had never been very fashionable, yet there had always been something really hot about those short plaid skirts and white knee socks, and while she was often selfish and outspoken, her determination and drive was something Puck always admired.

This room, though, seemed a bit more mature than the last, or at least he thought it might be from the doorway. “That’s a lot of mirrors, Berry. Bit of a kink?” he asked, raising his eyebrows as he threw a look back over his shoulder at her. Now was probably a good time to just back out and allow her her privacy, but this was Puck. Instead he stepped into the room for a better look, his eyes moving upwards.

He just had to know if the mirrors extended to the ceiling as well.

From:

acontrollist

"It came that way." She tells him. Even if it doesn't answer his question. To which the actual answer is yes, she's recently discovered. But he doesn't need to know that, does he? She follows him into the room, arms still folded. The ceiling is just a regular ceiling though, so too bad for Puck. ~~Just don't check the back of the bathroom door 'cause there's a mirror there too~~. But the room is more mature, dark furniture and pale yellow sheets.

"Are you done?" She asks, dropping her hands to her hips. It's a little weird, having Puck in her room like this again after all these years. And a little nerve-wracking too, considering what usually always happens whenever Puck's in her bedroom.

From:

countpuckula

Sadly, the ceiling was mirrorless, though Puck was too distracted trying to associate this room with the Rachel Berry he knew to really be too disappointed. It had only been a few years since he’d been in her bedroom back in Lima, and he just couldn’t compare the two. Between the room and the fact that she was wearing jeans - jeans on The Rachel Berry - well, Puck was pretty much lost.

“Yeah,” was all he managed to reply, turning back to leave the room but she was somehow effectively blocking the doorway, or as well as her tiny frame could at least. “Nice digs,” he offered, shifting the dufflebag up over his shoulder.

From:

acontrollist

Really, after her engagement, Rachel had begun to look at bedroom designs that would suit her and Finn. It was all about growing up at that point. About rushing her body and her tastes to suit the choices she was making. Between that, and prolonged exposure to Kurt now that they were in such close proximity and only knew each other for the longest time, he'd finally managed to influence her. Just a little bit.

"Thank you." She stands awkwardly for a second once he turns towards her, waiting for him to probably make a vulgar joke of some sort. But then she realizes that she's blocking his exit and steps out of the room, leading him to the room directly behind it. "This is the spare room."

From:

countpuckula

The silence was weird and a bit uncomfortable, and Puck wasn’t sure what she was waiting for. Was he supposed to say something else? Was she trying to think of something to say? Maybe she just wanted to keep him in her bedroom for a while...

Finally Rachel stepped back and led him to the next room. It wasn’t a bad size, though it probably looked bigger due to the fact that there was practically nothing in it.

“Why did you get two bedrooms if you didn’t plan on having a roommate?” he asked, walking inside and setting his stuff down in the centre of the room. Unless she’d had a roommate and didn’t anymore. Weren’t her and Kurt planning on getting a place together so they could chase their dreams and braid each other’s hair or whatever they did when they were alone? Maybe he should have asked more questions, or at least paid more attention whenever she got him on the phone.

From:

acontrollist

She's glad to have him out of her bedroom now. No matter how old they get, she thinks the sight of him near her bed is always going to bring up a sense of nostalgia and she's not sure how she feels about that. They're not exactly known for being able to be...decent when in close quarters for long enough, but she's betting on her sense of "Helping a friend in need" outweighing everything else.

"I was. Kurt was supposed to join me at first." She tells him. "But then he got an extra scholarship and could afford his own place, and I'd already fallen in love with this place from the pictures online. I figured I'd just use the spare room as a place to practice dance." Which is exactly what she's been doing.

From:

countpuckula

Oh, so Rachel was a good enough roommate for Hummel so long as he needed someone to foot half the bill, but he ditched her as soon as he didn’t need her anymore? That sure sounded like the diva, though it was a bit surprising considering how close Rachel and Kurt had grown in their final year of high school. Of course that had been before the whole engagement fiasco, which had probably put a strain on everything. Kurt hadn’t made it any secret that he didn’t approve (along with most of the Glee Club) and he is effectively Finn’s brother.

“Kind of hard to live with his brother’s ex, huh?” Puck spoke without thinking as he looked around the room. Only when he looked back at Rachel did he realise that this maybe wasn’t the best thing to bring up to someone he was looking to bum a room off of for a while. “Works out great for me, though,” he tried to smooth things over with a joke and a grin.

From:

acontrollist

Rachel blinks, much more offended by the statement than she knows she should be. Puck just talks without thinking sometimes, and she's used to it, but still. "...Finn and I's past has nothing to do with this. I'll have you know that Kurt felt that he was in the wrong just as much as I did and supported me in my decision to break up with him. Anyway. Now he and Blaine have a place all to themselves and he and I don't have to fight over decorating the common areas."

Folding her arms, she stays in the doorway, raising one eyebrow as he tries to smooth things over. "Yes, I suppose. I'll go call Santana for you. Maybe we can get the bed delivered tonight." And with that, she leaves him to it, heading back into the living room to get her phone. As much as she and Noah are friends, she's just really bothered by the fact that he throws around her and Finn's break-up so casually.

Not that he's not casual with everything...not that she misses Finn (much. Mostly, it's all general boyfriend things she misses. Nothing Finn specific). But still.