Puck/Kurt fic: A Cautionary Tale
Title: A Cautionary Tale
Author: grimcognito
Rating: PG-13 (like, one curse word)
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Puck/Kurt, Santana, just about everyone else in the background
Genre: hurt/comfort
Warning: Violent allergies, questionable medical facts
Spoilers: All the way up to Grilled Cheesus
Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the plot to this!
Author Notes: More Puck torture, thanks to the fic meme! :D
Summary: This Prompt from the Fluff meme: Puck has a severe peanut allergy and accidentally eats something he shouldn't have.
Word Count: 1459
Kurt knew Puck had a severe peanut allergy. He found out not too long after they had hooked up, when he had brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to school.
Puck had seen him eating it and complained that he wouldn’t get any kisses for a while. Kurt had been confused, “You don’t have to be so dramatic. I can just wash the taste away with some coffee if you don’t like it.”
Puck shook his head, “It’s not that. Death by hot make-out session is one hell of a way to go, but I’ve got a lot more years of sexin’ you up before I let that happen.”
“What?”
“I’m allergic to peanuts. Like, an ambulance has to come pick me up if I get even a hint of the stuff in my food.”
Kurt had been horrified, glad that he didn’t often indulge in his PB&J guilty pleasure. Who knew what might have happened if he had eaten some before Puck saw and they kissed? The thought was enough to make him lose his appetite all together. He made a mental note to keep an eye on what he ate from then on.
Puck had told him that the only people who knew outside of his family were him and Santana, whose father always asked if he had an epi-pen handy. Kurt also began to notice that Puck packed his own lunch.
Puck joked that the cafeteria food was non-kosher and probably all of the students who pissed off Coach Sylvester, but everyone knew it was a lie (well, not the non-kosher parts, who knew what was in the mystery-meat nuggets?) Hell, half the time Puck was eating BLT sandwiches when he said it. Now Kurt knew the real reason he did it and how Puck tended to refuse food from others, unless he knew that they had made it from home and what the ingredients were.
Kurt had never had to actually witness how bad Puck’s allergy was until Rachel brought in home-made cookies for the Glee club. She had passed them out, and Puck took one warily, “What’s in these?”
“Oh, they’re the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve made yet! I didn’t even have to add walnuts or anything.”
Puck had shrugged and stuffed the cookie in his mouth, humming in pleasure as he chewed and swallowed. Kurt rolled his eyes at the display and nibbled delicately on his own. They were surprisingly good, compared to Rachel’s last baking experiment where they were forced to sample her dense lumpy vegan bars.
Puck seemed to have caught some of the crumbs in his throat and gave a rough cough. Kurt raised an eyebrow at him, “Try chewing next time.”
He paused and looked at Puck closely, “Are you feeling okay?”
Puck was looking kind of flushed, and kept clearing his throat, he furrowed his brow and looked at Rachel who was now at the front of the room, “What the hell was in those cookies?”
Kurt didn’t like the hoarse sound of Puck’s voice. Rachel seemed surprised and a little hurt at Puck’s snapped question, “Well, I looked up this new recipe that is supposed to be better for you. Instead of using bleached flour, it used half whole wheat flour and half peanut flour.”
Puck didn’t wait for her to finish before he bent over in his chair and shoved two fingers down his throat. Kurt felt his stomach drop as Puck threw up the contents of his stomach and began to wheeze, his whole body trembling. He gasped out his words, voice thinning as his throat began to close up, “Epi-pen… my locker…”
Kurt stomped down the panic rising in his gut, “I need the lock combination!”
“I’ve got it! Someone fucking call 911!” Santana yelled as she dashed down the stairs, literally leaping over the bottom two rows of chairs, and dashed into the hallway. Everyone was moving around, but Kurt only paid attention to Rachel, close to tears as she spoke to the emergency operator on the other end of the line. Mr. Shue kept the others from crowding too close as Kurt shoved chairs out of the way and laid Puck out on the floor, avoiding the vomit and hoping he wasn’t making things worse.
Puck was clutching at Kurt’s shirt with one hand, the other clawing at his own collar as he opened his swollen mouth for ineffective and terrifyingly silent gasps. Puck wasn’t getting any air, his eyes wide and scared as he writhed weakly on the ground. Kurt was crying, he could feel the hot tears sliding down his cheeks, but he did his best to calm Puck down so he didn’t waste what oxygen was left in his system.
People were scrambling and yelling around them, but to Kurt it was all white noise as he focused on keeping Puck anchored. Santana shoved back through the group of students and dropped to her knees next to Kurt. She quickly pulled the pen out of its case and unscrewed the cap. She gripped Puck’s twitching thigh and jammed the tip into his leg, holding it there for about ten seconds before pulling it away.
The room went silent and Kurt held his breath, nearly letting it out in a sob when Puck arched back and gasped as the medicine worked. He coughed and kept gasping as he curled up slightly, pressing his forehead to Kurt’s thigh.
When the ambulance arrived and the EMTs loaded Puck onto a stretcher, the whole Glee club made sure to get the name of the hospital and split up into various cars to drive there.
The waiting room was full of anxious students, a few of them consoling Rachel who was crying and blaming herself for the whole thing. Kurt couldn’t bring himself to get angry at her, it was also Puck’s fault for keeping a secret that could cost him his life. Kurt was especially mad it himself for being so useless when it happened.
The parents arrived not too long after the Glee club, Kurt hugging his father as Puck’s mom rushed through the door and was led to the doctor who calmed her down with assurances that Puck would be fine, and that he just needed to take a few more tests before she could see him. Santana’s father arrived and also spoke with the doctor, but this time about the technical aspects of what happened.
He finished and walked over to where Santana sat with Kurt on one side and Brittany on the other. He hugged her and she showed a softer side that Kurt had never seen when she hugged him back, “You did so well, honey. I’m proud of you.”
Kurt tightened his own hold on Burt, that sense of uselessness even stronger now, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Santana’s father smiling at him, “You did a fine job yourself, young man. It takes a lot to stay calm in a situation like that, much less to keep someone else calm too. You kept Puck from injuring himself even more.”
Kurt managed to offer a wobbly smile in return, “Thank you.”
What felt like an eternity later, Mrs. Puckerman was allowed to see her son, and the doctor announced that he would be fine, if not well enough to go to school in a few days. Kurt slumped against his father in relief and smiled for real this time.
He was allowed to see Puck for a few seconds before he had to leave, and Puck had been asleep when he walked in, looking young and small in the hospital bed. Kurt sat next to him and held his hand, feeling his eyes burn with tears as he was reminded of how it felt to sit in this same spot with his father on the bed.
He told himself that it wasn’t the same, and Puck would be fine in a few days, but he knew the terror he’d felt at seeing Puck so vulnerable would always be there in his mind. He was going to punch his idiot of a boyfriend once he was better, then he was going to make damned sure Puck was coddled within an inch of his life.
He wasn’t too worried about Puck keeping his allergy a secret any more, he could see the look in Mrs. Puckerman’s eyes. That pained, angry, hurt and determined expression meant that she would be making sure nothing like this ever happened again.
When Kurt had to leave, he pressed a kiss to Pucks forehead and made sure to give Mrs. Puckerman a hug worthy of her own son before he went home to attempt sleep.
A/N: I hope this one isn't too similar to my Epilepsy fic, but I didn't know how to change it. *shrugs* Ah well.