Welcome to the Fallout

[acontrollist]

She tells Kurt later that night. Of course she does. He's her best friend and she's been trying to work out this...thing with Noah since it started Sophomore year, in between Finn and Jesse. And he's happy for her, which is great. It's just...he's a little too happy. A little too loud.

And guess who he lives with?

She's at her locker the next day (she hasn't seen Noah yet. She hasn't looked. She knows he's usually late and she's painfully punctual, so it's pretty much a moot point.) She's not expecting Finn to approach her. And she's definitely not expecting to hear "Puck? Puck? Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not sure how it's any of your business, Finn."

"He’s bad for you."
 
"You don’t know what’s bad for me, do you?"
 
"C’mon, Rachel, I know you better than anyone."
 
"So you kept hurting me on purpose, then?"
 
"Rach-"
 
"No, Finn, stop. I won’t-…even if I wasn’t trying this...thing with Noah-"
 
"Rachel, wake up! He only wants what he can’t have!"
 
"And why can’t he have me, Finn? I don’t belong to you.  We're over, okay? We're done. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure I have all of my homework for the day."

"You know you do, Rachel. Come on, we need to talk about this..."

Comments

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. It needed to be said." She shrugs, taking her notebook from Kurt. "Alright guys, any suggestions?" She leans back into Puck's chest, scribbling at the top Setlist.

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

Puck does have suggestions... just none that are serious. With Rachel using him as a chair, he rests his chin on her shoulder, occasionally brushing his lips against the back of her neck. "We should do Sexy and I Know It (http://youtu.be/wyx6JDQCslE)," he puts in his two cents, trying to be helpful but failing miserably.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

She starts to write, but scratches it out, elbowing him in the ribs and writing down Last Friday Night at the suggestion of Kurt. "I would like to do another original, but I don't really have any ideas..."

When Glee ends, Rachel shoulders her bag and reaches out to take Noah's hand. "I promised Hannah I'd braid her hair today."

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

Puck just sniggers to himself when she elbows him since she hadn't done it hard. Sometimes he thinks he's simply hilarious.

Holding Rachel's hand already feels as habitual as brushing his teeth twice a day but he tries not to think about it because he might just get scared and purposely fuck everything up so he doesn't have to deal with feelings he's never felt before. "Oh yeah? What about me?" Not that he wants his hair braided of course, which would be impossible anyway, but he's kind of got a thing for her combing her fingers through his mohawk. He's like a puppy that wants to be petted. "I'll pass on the braiding but feel free to stroke the 'hawk later." He really has perfected the act of making everything that comes out of his mouth sound sexual.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"Maybe." She laughs, knocking her hip against his as they cross the room to leave. "Sarah first." It looks like it's just them now, so she' a little startled when of course Finn calls out to them.

"Puckerman.

"...If you hurt her, I'm gonna bust your fucking nuts open."

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

He's been expecting Finn to say something since Rachel sang that song that was obviously directed at him. He rolls his eyes at the threat before turning to Finn and giving him a nod that's serious, but rest assured, he won't be hurting Rachel, at least not intentionally.

"Do we have your blessing now? You're my best friend, dude. I don't want us to fall out over this..."

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"I don't-. I'm not happy. Still. But I keep fucking up and I'm trying to be man enough to own up to it, so...there's nothing I can really say. I'll be alright, eventually. And you guy are happy, so-yeah."

Rachel lets go of Puck's hand, crossing the room and leaning up to kiss Finn's cheek. "Thank you." But make no mistake, Finn, she makes her way right back over to Puck, tucking herself underneath his arm. "Come on, before everyone gets to hear that Hannah's ringtone is Barbie Girl."

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry, man," Puck tells Finn and he genuinely means it. But he won't give Rachel up for him. Not in a million years. "I'll take good care of her. I promise."

He's glad when Rachel is back by his side, his arm coming around her shoulders as they leave Finn and make their way out of school.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

She's silent until they leave the parking lot. And then she says, "Does taking good care of me include stopping at the gas station and buying me a grape slushie?" Doe eyes and all.

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

That has him blinking at her indecisively. He did buy her favorite slushie that one time but he has a feeling if he buys it for her now, now she's officially his girlfriend, it totally means he's whipped. But he did promise Finn he'd take good care of her... and he does want to make her happy. And grape slushie seems make her happy.

And those fucking doe eyes. He can't say no to them.

"Yeah, it does." He tilts his head towards his car, gesturing for her to get in once he unlocks it.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"You don't have to." She sees the indecisiveness in his eyes and as much as she wants this, him, she knows that he's had this whole thing with relationships since they were kids and she doesn't want to force this. "I was only kidding..." She opens the door of the truck, climbing in (because she's 5'2 and his truck is massive).

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

Rachel looks so tiny in comparison to his truck that he'd almost offered to help her in. "It's just a slushie. It's not a big deal," Puck reasons with himself as he sits in the driver's seat and starts the car.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"Noah." She takes his hand off of the steering wheel, squeezing it so he'll look at her. They both know that it's not a just a slushie. "I don't want to force this or you or make you uncomfortable...you can say no."

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

"What?" He says confusedly as she takes his hand of the steering wheel, leaning back in his seat to look at her. "I'm not uncomfortable. I'm just not used to taking care of anyone other than myself." Unless it was sexually, then he'd 'taken care' of a lot of women in the past... "Just let me buy you a slushie. I've done it before. I'm fine with it," he shrugs at her. Maybe there had been some hesitance before but he wants to a good boyfriend and good boyfriends buy shit for their girlfriend. "Stop being dramatic and let me drive," he gives her a teasing smile before leaning in and giving her a short kiss.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"Stop having a mohawk and buy me a slushie." Since they're asking for the impossible and giving orders here. She grins against his lips, settling back in her seat and buckling up.

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

He felt so naked without his mohawk the last time he shaved it, though. He scoffs at her as reverses out of the parking space and heads towards the nearest gas station. "You love my 'hawk, don't deny."

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"Mmm, maybe." She reaches up, scratching her nails against the back of his head, through the 'hawk.

Rachel lets Puck buy their slushies, but she insists on buying one for Hannah and the 8 year old is just getting off of the bus when they pull into his driveway.

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

It's like scratching a dog behind its ears, the way Puck reacts to her practically petting him, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye to give her a smile.

"S'up, dudette," Puck greets his little sister once he's out of the car and she's heading towards them with her cute little backpack, looking more happier to see Rachel than she is to see her brother. "Did you do anything badass in school today?"

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

All Rachel can do is laugh when Hannah looks up at her brother and says: "I went."

"You've been spending far too much tie with your brother!" Rachel laughs, handing her her slushie and receiving a hug for the effort. "Thank you, Rachel! Are you still going to braid my hair?"

"Of course. But homework first, in you go." She waves her towards the house and Hannah pouts, but goes, heading up the stairs of the porch and into the house. Rachel waits until she's gone to turn and slap playfully at Noah's chest. "It's a good thing you started dating me in her prime developmental years or else she'd just be a female version of you."

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

Puck nods proudly at Hannah's answer, it sounding exactly like something he'd say.

"Ow," he pouts at Rachel once his sister's gone and she whacks his chest, pretending the action hurt when it hadn't. "What would be wrong with a female version of me?"

Everything.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"Besides the obvious, with you being slightly chauvinistic and skipping school like it's a sport?" She raises an eyebrow. "What are you going to do tomorrow night?" She knows Tuesdays are his days to see Beth and she doesn't say it to cut, but she does say it to say that Hannah's got a lot of mistakes to learn from.

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

"I went to all my classes today," Puck points out to her, but he'd only attended them to keep an eye on Finn throughout the day. If skipping class was an olympic sport, he'd be the world champion at it.

"I was actually wondering if you wanted to babysit Beth with me," Puck asks her, glad she brought up tomorrow night. "Shelby won't be there... Neither will Quinn because she's been acting crazy lately so I asked Shelby if we could have separate days to see her." Maybe it'd be too weird for her but he wanted her there.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"I noticed." She nods. "I'm very proud of you, just so you know. You should totally keep doing that. It's not too late to start applying for colleges."

He...wants her to come see Beth. She opens her mouth, then closes it. "Noah, do you really-...are you sure that's a good idea? I'm not very experienced with...infants."

[puckingaround.livejournal.com]

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, babe." He's a long way away from thinking he's good enough for any college, let alone wanting to go.

"You don't have to do anything except be there. I'll handle everything." He's become pretty confident looking after Beth now. Not that he could handle looking after her 24/7, but Beth loves him, doesn't cry in his arms like she does when Quinn holds her (which is frankly worrying), and he knows exactly what to do to make Beth stop crying if she starts, which is sing.

[acontrollist.livejournal.com]

"Considering that it's prime application time, Noah, I think I'm exactly where I need to be." She takes a sip of her slushie, leaning her temple against his shoulder as they enter the house. "Don't think you're getting out of homework either, Mister. We're all going to sit down together."

"I-...you're sure, Noah?" Because asking her to meet his daughter is a big deal and they just started dating yesterday. Not that they weren't friends before. Right? Wait. Oh god, they were.