Peace on Earth and Goodwill Toward Men
Title: Peace on Earth and Goodwill Toward Men
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Puck/Kurt
Genre: fluff, romance
Warnings: none
Spoilers: Seasons 1 and 2, vaguely Season 3
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Glee. Unfortunately I don’t.
Author notes: Many thanks to the lovely want_to_be_kate for beta-reading. This was my fic for the 2011puckurt Chrismukkah fest, written for the amazing patchfire.
Summary: Puck’s not sure if he’s more nervous or excited about getting snowed in alone with Kurt.
Word count: 3600ish
The snow starts out of nowhere. One minute it’s a typical, grey Ohio winter day and the next the snow is falling thick and fast. Figgins cancels after school activities almost immediately, although Puck is pretty sure that’s because it’s the last day before winter break and he wants to get out of there just as much as everybody else. It’s not as if they aren’t used to weather.
Puck doesn’t mind glee getting cancelled, since it means he doesn’t have to put up with an hour singing Christmas carols and Rachel bitching about Hanukkah songs. He’s supposed to hang with Finn tonight, too, and he isn’t gonna complain about spending more time at the Hudmels’, because seriously, the TV is fucking huge and Mrs. H is an awesome cook.
He meets Finn as the last bell rings and everybody floods the hallways, ready for two weeks away from school.
“D’you mind catching a ride with Kurt?” Finn asks, staring into his locker like he can’t remember which books he needs to bring home with him over break. “I told Rachel I’d drive her home.”
“Whatever. But if you decide to stay there and get your mack on, don’t expect for me to wait to start the movie. Bros before hos, dude.”
Finn rolls his eyes, “I’m just driving her home. I’ll see you in like half an hour.”
“You know you want to give me a ride to your house.” Puck says when he finds Kurt at his own locker.
“Not particularly,” Kurt says, trying to shove a giant history textbook into his already full bag, “but I’m not cruel enough to make you walk in this weather either.”
“Sweet,” Puck grins.
The snow is ankle-deep in the parking lot, and Puck’s feet are soaked by the time they reach Kurt’s car. Puck clambers in as soon as Kurt unlocks the doors and sinks happily into the leather seat.
The drive back to the Hudmels’ is quiet, because the roads are pretty slippery and Kurt is focusing all his attention on driving, although he does let Puck DJ.
“No Mr. and Mrs. H today?” Puck asks when they pull into the empty driveway, because usually Mrs. H has Fridays off.
“They’re in Cleveland for my uncle Andy’s birthday.”
“You and Finn didn’t have to go?”
“I had a French test I couldn’t miss today and Finn said he was worried I’d be lonely all by myself for the weekend,” Kurt rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t look as annoyed as he’s pretending to be.
The house is warm, and Puck kicks off his wet shoes right away. He spends enough time here that he feels right at home, so while Kurt takes forever getting out of his combat boots, Puck wanders into the kitchen and starts rooting through the fridge.
“You’re going to eat us out of house and home.” Kurt says with one of those smirks that used to annoy Puck, but have actually started to grow on him.
Puck shrugs, gathering fixings for a sandwich. “Pretty sure Finn’s got that covered, actually.”
Kurt snorts and rummages at the back of one of the cabinets, coming up with a bag of Doritos. “Have to hide them from my dad,” he explains.
“Dude, I’m here all the time. You think I don’t know where the junk food is hidden?” Puck laughs.
Kurt shrugs, his demeanour suddenly cool again, leaving Puck wondering what he did wrong. Before he can figure it out, his phone is ringing in his pocket. He digs it out and pretends he doesn’t see Kurt rolling his eyes at the ringtone.
“Dude,” Finn says, and Puck can already tell he’s cancelling.
“Seriously?” Puck lets out a frustrated sigh.
“Rachel just wants me to stay until the plows go through. The roads are really bad.”
“Whatever,” Puck shakes his head. “I’ll hang out with your brother til you get back, I guess.”
Kurt looks ready to protest, but he must change his mind, because he doesn’t say anything, just opens the bag of chips.
“Rachel doesn’t want him to drive in this.” Puck gestures to the window. It is still snowing, and Puck has to admit that he’s surprised it’s kept up for as long as it has.
“I don’t blame her.” Kurt admits.
“Wanna watch a movie or something?” Puck suggests.
“Sure,” Kurt agrees. “You pick. I’m just going to drop my stuff upstairs.”
Puck takes his sandwich into the living room and opens the DVD cabinet. The collection is a little weird. And huge, which he guesses is what happens when two families do the whole Brady Bunch thing. Minus, like, four kids. He grabs the three Star Wars DVDs off the shelf (the original ones-he saw all the prequels with Finn when they came out and they’d agreed they were all totally lame). He and Finn planned on a marathon, but Puck doesn’t feel like waiting around until whenever Rachel lets Finn leave. Kurt doesn’t complain when he returns to the living room and sees the movie cued up.
Kurt goes into the kitchen for a drink at some point after Luke finally agrees to stop being lame and help Obi-Wan and he calls Puck into the kitchen a second later.
When Puck gets there, Kurt is standing at the doors that lead out into the backyard.
“Fuck.” Puck says, because there really isn’t any other appropriate response. There’s at least a foot of snow on the ground and it’s still coming down steadily.
“Let’s put the news on.” Kurt suggests.
They know it’s bad when every channel they flick through has a scrolling weather alert. Kurt stops on the Weather Channel, where a meteorologist is gesturing enthusiastically at the giant storm front coming down from Canada.
“Can you say lake effect?” Puck groans.
“You should probably call your mom,” Kurt says. “She might be worried.”
Puck doubts it, but he pulls his phone out anyway, and wanders into the kitchen to call her.
“Where are you?” She demands as soon as she picks up the phone.
“Finn’s.”
“Stay there. I don’t want you or Finn driving in this.”
“Okay. Did Sarah get home all right?”
“She’s fine. We’re at Nana’s. I didn’t want her to be alone in case the power goes out.”
“Okay,” Puck says. He wonders if he should tell his mom that Burt and Carole aren’t home, but decides not to. She’ll only worry more, and he knows he and Kurt will be fine. The fridge is well stocked, and unless they lose power, they’ll have plenty of thinks to keep them occupied.
“Stay safe,” his mom says before hanging up.
When he gets back to the living room, Kurt is on the phone too.
“Dad, it’s fine. Puck is here, we have plenty of food, and I don’t really know how you plan on getting here anyway if they’ve closed the highway.”
“Really?” Puck asks quietly and Kurt nods.
“I’m sure everything will be okay…yeah, I love you too. Tell Uncle Andy I said happy birthday.” He hangs up and drops his phone on the couch. “He worries.”
“It’s cool. Sounds just like the conversation I had with my mom. Finn gonna stay at Rachel’s?”
“Yeah. You hungry?” Kurt asks. “I think there’s a pizza in the freezer.”
“Sounds good.”
They finish the movie, and then spend the rest of the evening switching between the weather channel and the news, sort of in shock about weather like this actually happening to them. They don’t hear any plows go by, and nearly every news station basically tells them that it’s going to keep snowing for a while.
“Hope you didn’t have any big plans this weekend,” Kurt sighs, “because I’m pretty sure we’re snowed in.”
“Guess so.” Puck agrees, not sure if he’s more nervous or excited about that much time alone with Kurt.
They check in with their parents around nine, and they’re both yawning widely by eleven.
“I’ll crash in Finn’s room, yeah?”
“There are spare toothbrushes in the bathroom.”
“I know.”
“Right,” Kurt nods. He looks ready to say something else, but he just shrugs and starts climbing the stairs. Puck stands and stretches before following Kurt. They part ways at the top, Kurt turning left into his room, and Puck heading across the hall to Finn’s. Kurt pauses on the threshold of his room and turns back to Puck.
“Good night,” Kurt says quietly, like he’s not sure he should.
“Night.”
***
Of all the people to get snowed in with, Puck thinks he might have won the lottery, because when he wakes up the next morning and stumbles into the kitchen, Kurt is making waffles. Not even frozen Eggos, but real waffles. There’s bacon too, and what smells like really strong coffee. If he’d been at his Nana’s with his mom and his sister, the best he would have gotten probably would have been instant oatmeal.
“I heard a rumour you’re a waffle enthusiast.”
“That’s true,” Puck nods, shuffling towards the coffee pot.
They eat breakfast in comfortable silence, which is weird because Puck isn’t used to anything being comfortable with Kurt, especially silence. He feels this magnetic pull towards the other boy and he’s spent years resisting it as best he can. It makes him say and do stupid shit - or it’s one of the many things that make him say and do stupid shit, anyway - and it means that he never really relaxes around Kurt. And he knows Kurt isn’t an idiot, he can tell from the cautious way Kurt acts around him that he’s picking up on whatever confusing, contradicting signals Puck has been sending out. More likely than not, actually, Kurt probably figures Puck just doesn’t like him much.
They spend the morning separately. Puck hooks up the Wii to destroy some of Finn’s Super Mario high scores while Kurt sits in the kitchen with his laptop. Puck can sometimes hear the keyboard clacking away as he types, and he wonders what he’s doing. Probably not homework, because seriously, nobody’s that eager (except maybe Rachel).
He pauses the game and wanders into the kitchen - because he’s thirsty, not because he’s curious about what Kurt is doing.
“Don’t frown so hard, your face will freeze like that,” Puck jokes, snapping open the root beer he grabbed from the fridge.
“Hmmm?” Kurt says absently. Puck snorts and sits down opposite him.
“Can I help you?” Kurt looks up from his computer screen, his eyebrow arched. Puck arches one of his own, just because he can, and the corners of Kurt’s mouth twitch up into a smile. Puck counts it as a victory, although he’s not really sure what game he’s playing.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting the last of my college applications done. Saved Ohio State for last.”
“Ohio State? I thought you were all about New York.”
“I am. It’s my backup plan if I don’t get enough financial aid anywhere else.” Kurt sighs.
“That would suck.”
“I know. All I want to do is get out of Ohio.”
“Me too,” Puck nods. “I’m waiting on Pitt and Maryland.”
“You applied to college?”
Puck flinches, because Kurt’s tone is so surprised. Puck gets tired of nobody ever expecting anything from him. He’s as determined to get out of this town as anybody else, maybe even more so since he has so many people just assuming he never will. He’d thought Kurt would understand that.
“Yeah. I did.” He says coolly.
“I’m sorry,” Kurt says after a moment. “I didn’t mean it like that. I wasn’t thinking.”
“I know.” Puck shrugs. “You’re not the only one.”
“What are you going to study?”
“I wanna be a social worker or a guidance counsellor or something.”
“Oh.” Kurt says softly.
“Yeah, I’m pretty used to that reaction too.”
Kurt’s forehead wrinkles, taking a second to think about it, before he says, “I think you’ll be good at it.”
“Yeah?” Puck is used to hearing exactly the opposite.
“Yes,” Kurt nods.
Before either of them can say anything more, the lights flicker before going out entirely.
“Great.” Puck sighs.
Kurt shuts his laptop down, and they return to the living room, which is dimmer than the kitchen. It’s actually sort of cosy, and Kurt grabs one of the blankets off the back of the couch and wraps himself up in it before sinking into the couch. Puck does the same, sprawling across two cushions. Kurt rolls his eyes and Puck just grins at him. He spends enough time here that Kurt already knows his sofa-hogging ways.
“Truth or dare?” Puck asks, mostly because he’s not sure how else they’re going to pass the time. Plus he likes Truth or Dare. He’s curious about people, especially Kurt.
“Seriously?” Kurt snorts.
“You got a better idea?”
“Fine. Truth.”
Puck thinks for a moment. “You ever make out with a chick?”
“Really? That’s what you want to start with?”
“Oh, come on.”
“Yes. I have. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
Kurt smirks. “Have you ever kissed a boy?”
For a second, Puck thinks about lying, but since the game is truth or dare, he says, “Yeah.”
It’s worth it to see the look on Kurt’s face; his mouth falls open in surprise and he blinks rapidly at Puck a few times.
“Truth or dare?” Puck grins.
“Truth.”
“Which girl did you hook up with?”
“Brittany. Your turn.”
“Truth.”
“Did you love Quinn?”
“Really? You’re not going to ask me about the dude I hooked up with?”
“No.” Kurt shakes his head. “I don’t want you outing anybody.”
For a second Puck is surprised, but he gets it. In a town like this, sometimes secrets are the only way to go. It’s definitely how he’s been managing for this long. “Yeah. I loved her. But it wasn’t real, you know? It was more about Beth.” Puck swallows around the sudden lump in his throat and changes the subject. “What are you going to do if you can’t go to New York?”
“Work my ass off at Ohio State and save as much money as I can so I can move there as soon as I graduate.” Kurt’s expression is determined, and Puck doesn’t doubt for a second that Kurt will get to New York, one way or another. When he says as much, Kurt blinks at him for a second, before a smile spreads across his face.
Kurt’s smile is unfamiliar, and it makes Puck realise how much pressure the other boy must be under. Kurt rarely looks as relaxed as he does now, and it’s only seeing him like this that makes the contrast so obvious. His smile lights up his whole face, and it makes Puck’s breath catch in his chest, and he’s starting to wonder if maybe this thing he has for Kurt is a bigger deal than he thought.
The game sort of falls apart when Kurt produces a deck of cards from the coffee table drawer. Puck gets his ass handed to him in several rounds of Spit, because apparently Kurt’s a secret card sharp, and there’s something so easy about joking around and trash-talking each other that Puck sort of wants a time machine so he can go back to freshman year for a re-do, just to have more of this.
Their options to kill time start to run out as it gets darker, and they end up migrating from the couch to Kurt’s bedroom, where he at least has a few candles to light, although they don’t do much except make the room smell like vanilla and keep it from being entirely pitch black.
They have no choice, really, except to sit and talk. The topics are mostly insignificant, just talking to fill the time between now and whenever they manage to fall asleep, but it’s easier to talk like this, when Kurt’s face is mostly hidden in shadow and there’s no chance of being interrupted.
“So, uh, what’s the deal with your boy?”
Kurt frowns. “If you’re referring to Blaine, he’s not my boy anymore.”
“That’s what I mean. Why’d you break up?”
“Irreconcilable differences.” Kurt says dryly.
“Well, obviously. If everybody could reconcile their differences, nobody would ever break up. Gimme the real answer.”
“Why do you even care?” Kurt frowns.
“I just do.” Puck says, and he thinks it comes out more vehemently than he meant it to, from the way Kurt tilts his head and stares at him for a second.
Kurt sighs. “I just…stopped feeling like me. I was just one half of this perfect whole, only it wasn’t that perfect at all. He was convinced we were soul mates, and I wanted to believe him, but I just couldn’t.”
“I heard it was because he fucked another dude.”
“No. He didn’t do that. Although it certainly would have been easier to dump him if he had. It’s really hard, finding a way to tell somebody you can’t be with him because you hate the person you become when you’re together.”
Puck winces. “I bet that didn’t go over so well.”
“No. It didn’t.” Kurt shakes his head. “Although I’m sure you probably guessed that from his sudden transfer back to Dalton.” Kurt’s mouth twists in a bitter frown.
“You miss him?” Puck asks. Puck really does not miss Blaine and he knows he’s not the only one.
“He was the only friend I had who understood exactly what I was going though. I miss that.” Kurt shrugs like he doesn’t care, but Puck can tell he does. It’s like how he felt most of sophomore and junior year when Finn hated him. Finn knows what it’s like to grow up without a dad, to be terrified of becoming a Lima loser, and to want stuff so bad it made you do stupid things, so when he and Finn were fighting, Puck walked around pretending he was fine because he didn’t know how to fix their friendship. He figures it’s probably the same thing for Kurt with Blaine.
“That really sucks, Kurt.” Puck says.
“It is what it is.” Kurt shrugs.
“For the record, I’m glad you got rid of him, because I missed the old you.”
It’s too dark to see, but Puck imagines Kurt is probably blushing, especially from the way his voice climbs a little higher when he speaks. “Thank you. I think.”
***
Sleeping next to Kurt, Puck thinks when he wakes up, is like sleeping next to an octopus (except without a drowning risk). They’re all tangled up, with one of Kurt’s legs thrown across his and his arms tight around Puck’s middle and his face tucked against Puck’s neck. Puck is comfortably warm and relaxed and he’s already dreading the moment Kurt wakes up and pulls away. He’s pretty sure he’s crazy for pretending he doesn’t want Kurt for as long as he has been, and he wonders if maybe it’s about time he admitted it.
Squinting past Kurt’s shoulder, he can see that it isn’t snowing outside anymore, and that means soon the roads will clear up and Kurt will drive him home, and this whole weekend is going to turn into another one of his many missed opportunities. He’s only eighteen and he’s already let enough things in his life pass him by, mostly because he was too afraid to admit what he really wanted. He let it happen with Quinn and Beth and he’s not about to let that happen with Kurt.
He thinks about going back to sleep, just so he can have a few more precious hours of this, but before he can, Kurt makes a little snuffling noise and pulls his face away from Puck’s neck. He blinks sleepily at Puck and smiles, and Puck has never wanted to kiss anybody so much in his entire life. So he does.
He can tell Kurt is surprised because for a second nothing happens and then Kurt’s lips are pressing back against Puck’s. He loses himself in roaming hands and the tangle of tongues and the feel of Kurt’s body against his own and it’s all better than he ever imagined and he knows for sure now that he’d be crazy to let this pass him by.
“Well that’s new.” Kurt says when they separate.
Puck laughs and Kurt smiles at him, blushing a little. Puck can’t help curling his hand around Kurt’s face, which is warm to the touch. “For you maybe,” he murmurs. “But not for me.”
Kurt looks unconvinced, and Puck doesn’t blame him; they have a complicated history.
“Listen, I know I kinda suck at showing it, but I really like you, okay? And I want to be with you.”
“Puck,” Kurt sighs, and his face is too neutral for Puck to be able to tell what he’s going to say.
“Just give me a chance, Kurt. Please. It’s Christmas, after all. Peace on earth, good will toward men, that sort of thing.”
Kurt snorts a laugh. “It would be pretty convenient to have somebody to kiss under the mistletoe.”
“Don’t forget New Year’s Eve, too.” Puck grins. “I dunno if you noticed, babe, but I’d be pretty useful in that department.”
“You know, I was still sort of asleep before. You might have to remind me.”
“No problem,” Puck grins, before leaning in to capture Kurt’s lips again. Kurt sort of melts against him and kisses him back hungrily and Puck grins against Kurt’s mouth, because this is definitely his idea of peace on earth and goodwill toward men.