Getting Good at Starting Over

[countpuckula]

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.

Comments

[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."

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.