GLEE: Not Quite but Really Almost
Title: Not Quite but Really Almost
Rating: PG 13
Characters: Noah 'Puck' Puckerman, Kurt Hummel, Ma Puckerman, Sarah Puckerman, Burt Hummel
Pairing: Kurt/Puck
Warnings: Fluff
Spoilers: vague season one (AU)
Disclaimer: Not mine. No money. No affiliation.
A/N: from the glee_fluff_meme, prompt here.
Summary: With the Puckerman's and Hummel's slowly becoming family, it's only Noah's luck that something come along to screw it all up. He really might be his father's son.
Continuation of Almost but Not Quite Really
Note: As it's AU, and I'm sort of lazy, I have ignored BabyGate in that Quinn never got preggers.
If you'd told him all this nine months ago, well, you'd be in the hospital eating through a straw if he's really honest. It's not that he has any problem with it, not at all, but it's not exactly what he ever would've expected going on. Like, ever.
Thing was, everything sort of got better. Puck's always been pretty adamant that they don't need his Dad -clearly they've gotten by just fine without him. Sarah wouldn't know him if he walked through the front door and Puck would probably punch him if he did. But they were fine, right? Ma got by, he helped out, Sarah was great. Except then Ma started dating, and okay, a little bit weird. Yeah, she'd gone out with a few guys over the years, but they were all just stupid little dates and usually only the one night. There was one memorable time when she'd texted Puck to get him to come and crash the date with Sarah because it was that bad -no really, he had to drag his sister to Breadsticks so that he could glare at the guy who had his hand on his mother’s butt. It was an interesting night.
But Burt was different -in a lot of ways. He'd never seen his mother come in from a Parents Association meeting smiling. Never. Usually, at those meetings she'd end up saying something and one of the cougars would get all flustered and when she came home he'd get an ear bashing for sleeping with women old enough to be his mother. Not this time, this time she came in talking about this wonderful man who asked her out, and then, when the date actually happened, fuck, Puck thought he'd be peeling her off the ceiling she was that high.
So, it went on like that for a bit, and Puck was cool with it, even if it was Hummel's old man, cause really, his Ma deserved a little bit of decent attention. And Kurt was alright, kinda. Not that Puck would be admitting that then.
Turns out, they might've needed a dad figure, even if it wasn't their Dad. Living with Burt and Kurt -and Sarah made so many jokes about that one night that Puck literally snorted soda out his nose- was a lot easier than Puck would've thought. Burt was cool with a lot of things -like his music and the fact that he had weights in the garage and Sarah adding Hannah Montana and America's Next Top Model onto the TiVo (which, according to Kurt, was not as good as Project Runway, and is what Puck blames on the loss of two of his shirts which Sarah decided to Frankenstein while playing Project Runway herself). And Kurt's pretty okay too. He doesn't do the lawn, because the little diva gets all blotchy and shit and complains, so Puck just does it when it needs it and Kurt takes one of his nights doing dishes without commenting, and all in all they sort of work around the fact that they hate each other.
Until Puck realises that he doesn't actually hate the little diva. Sure, he's always thought Kurt was a stuck up little bitch, but living with him? He's not, really. He watches all these car shows with his Dad and gabs with Puck's Ma about hairstyles and celebrities and stuff that Puck listens to, but isn't in the least bit bothered about. And he doesn't make comment about Puck's really shit vision and need for glasses, which he could, because Puck fucking hates his contacts and gets them out as soon as possible and Kurt just always sees his ridiculous glasses and never passes a remark. And Ma sort of fires off this throwaway comment one night, while he's sitting on the sofa in his sweats, t-shirt and glasses with a bowl of cereal listening to her talk about work -and Burt pretty much told her she was working one job and not two, so pick one and quit the other- when she gets up and leans over to kiss his forehead like she hasn't done since he was seven. "I'm so glad things are working out, that we're sort of like a family now." And Puck would protest that they were a family before, just a smaller one, like Burt and Kurt were a family. Now they're two families making up a bigger house.
But she's actually right. Kurt and Burt were father and son, yes. But it's pretty obvious from just how much Kurt adores Ma that they were missing something. And yeah, Noah tried to step up, but he's got this habit of doing really stupid shit before even thinking and it sort of fucks a lot of stuff up for him and his Ma and they try, but it's not like she's the best at laying down the law because she sort of depends on him a little too much for the adult stuff with Sarah. So, they were missing that male authority figure that might've kept Noah from pretty much doing all the 'Puck' worthy shit that he did.
Burt kinda filled that space.
And 'sort of' being a family meant that Noah didn't feel in the least bit worried about seeing Kurt first thing in the morning before school, before he's had his coffee and is a walking zombie; hair all over the place, sleep filled eyes, rumpled to hell with pillow creases on his face, and Noah totally finding it adorable in a not-so-platonic way. Which, at first, shit, but then, not so much.
Because he's started to notice a few things about Kurt, and one of them would be the way he kind of stares at Noah in his glasses. And it's not that 'ha, you are less awesome than you think' it's more the thoughtful stare that Noah hasn't been able to figure out. And then Kurt shaves his mohawk back in and kisses him. And well, Noah's pretty sure he knows what that thoughtful stare might be all about now.
It's cool and Kurt freaks out, he's a little freaked out as well. He's still a little freaked out when his Ma and Burt come back from their little get-away (which Puck knows is just his Ma's way of quietly saying she and Burt are having sex and frankly, he's a little uncomfortable with knowing this) and he's sitting on the sofa again with his cereal.
"Mohawk back?" His Ma has always known that he has a weird thing about his hair -even before it was a mohawk, it was kept short, because it curled, and he hated it. Sarah hated him for having curly hair and her getting boring straight hair. Genetics hated them. "Kurt shave it for you?" He just nodded, because it's obvious, since it's straight.
"Didn't do it in the sink, don't worry." She just laughed and stroked her fingers through it and Noah could only think about when Kurt did it and how good it felt and well, damn.
"Not out on a date or something?"
"Nope," Noah's not so much 'dating' anyone as not so much sleeping with cougars, because it's kind of degrading in a certain way sometimes. "Figured I'd pick up Sarah in the morning, you guys can sleep in." He gets a kiss goodnight from his Ma and a shoulder squeeze from Burt and frankly, it feels more like family than he's ever had before.
It takes Kurt a week to get over the whole kiss thing and then they totally move past it and well, there are much better ways to spend free periods than recoding the hockey player’s locker combos. And it's pretty much this weirdly stable relationship. Because they hang out -which confuses some people, and sometimes Sarah tags along for a night out or something, but it's still pretty cool. And the make outs are pretty fucking awesome. So yeah, not something he would've ever expected to happen, but pretty fucking awesome that it did.
So, he wears his glasses a little more often, because it totally gets Kurt all hot and bothered, and he's doing a lot better in class and stuff, because he actually attends -turns out that's half the battle really, and he's pretty sure that everything is sort of on track for once. But that never really lasts, does it. He's standing at his locker, shoving his Chemistry book as far in as he can, as if it'll teach the book a lesson or something, when he hears the voice that he's never forgotten, even after all these years. "Looks like you got something from your mother's side of the family."
He turns around; staring because he's pretty sure he might've just fallen asleep in Chemistry or something, but nope. He hasn't. Of all the places and all the times, who the hell would think that the middle of the school day and the school hall would be a good idea to surprise the son you walked out on eight years ago?
Apparently, his Dad did.
"What, no hug?"
"I swear to anything you think is sacred, step towards me and I will break your smug fucking face." He's pretty sure he would, the fucker better realise that because he highly doubts his Ma would like to explain to the cops just why Puck broke his old man’s face. "What the fuck are you doing here?" He's aware of the few stares from the people dumb enough to actually gawk at him; Mercy and Kurt are further down the hall, Finn is along the other side and Rachel somewhere to his left. He's pretty sure he just saw Jacob Ben Israel and his stupid camera, but he's so past caring.
"Stopped by the house, little bit surprised to find a couple of black kids in there." Noah didn't actually know who had bought their old house, only that it had sold -complete with the deck chair on the roof.
"We moved." He is so not interested in having a conversation with this man, he's far more likely to punch him or start yelling and he's trying not to cause a scene but the urge is just getting far greater to let loose. "What the fuck are you doing here?" Shouldn't the school like check on this shit? Who the fuck they just let wander in and around and seriously, there could be murderers or sex offenders or piece of shit deadbeat parents.
"Well, when I couldn't find you at home, school was the best place to go. I want to talk to your mother, son."
"She doesn't want to talk to you, so take your piece of shit ass and fuck back off to wherever you've been for the last eight years. We don't need shit from you." Santana and Quinn have appeared in the mass of people and Noah hates that so many people are all up in his shit, and he hates his old man for doing this in the middle of school and he hates the school for not locking it's fucking doors or something. Brittany comes out of a classroom at the end of the hall with Mr Schue and Coach Beiste and at least this will be ended in a minute or two.
"I want to see my daughter," he's still got this stupid pleading look on his face and Puck's fist curls at his side, "I deserve to see her."
"You don't even know her fucking name, you don't deserve shit!" Schue's hand lands on his shoulder just as he takes a step forwards and he knows he's about to let loose. "Get the fuck out of here and stay away from my sister." Sarah doesn't need this jackass, Sarah has him, and Kurt, and Burt, and their Ma and that's all she needs.
"Sir, you're going to have to leave." Schue isn't in the least bit authoritative, but Beiste is, and that's probably what makes his Dad back the fuck off and out of the school and hopefully off the face of the planet. He's not lucky enough for that to happen. "Puck, you okay?" He's not, no, and everyone is standing around staring and Puck just pulls his shoulder away from Schue's grasp and storms out -his storm out isn't nearly as effective as a Rachel Berry storm out, but that's cool, because he's not a pint-sized diva anyway.
He sits on the bleachers, calls his Ma to warn her, calls Burt to tell him and then calls his grandmother because he knows that she sure as shit wants to know where the hell her son has been for eight fucking years, and his Bubbie is a scary woman. Ma says she'll call the school to let him leave early to pick up Sarah and make sure that he doesn't get near her and eventually, Kurt slinks out to sit on the bleachers beside him. It's a little tense, mostly because Puck doesn't want to talk about it, but Kurt is just waiting for it.
"I always wondered if he'd ever come back, y'know? If he'd have some excuse or if he'd just waltz in as if he'd just gone to a fucking store in Germany to get those smokes he left to get." He hates that he cares, hates that he's sort of curious, hates that he's feeling all these stupid feelings again. "Seriously, he doesn't even know Sarah's name, he doesn't. Just that she's a little girl. Wouldn't know her if she walked past him in the street. Piece of fucking shit just picked up and left, what the fuck kind of asshole walks out on his pregnant wife and saunters back eight years later like it was nothing? The fuck does he think he is?" Kurt slides closer, leaning against Puck's shoulder and it's the most contact they'd had at school, where people can see, because Kurt wants to be just as private as Noah's gotten about all his shit.
"What did your mom say?" Noah's not sure if Kurt's a little worried about the development here -Burt knows mostly everything about the break down in the Puckerman household, and his Ma is totally in a much better place with Burt than she had ever been with Elijah Puckerman, and frankly, Puck will give his mother a verbal lashing if she even thinks about entertaining that piece of shit and his sorry excuses.
"She's going home, I'm picking up Sarah. I called Burt to let him know." If anything, his Ma was totally going to need Burt's support for this whole thing. "You wanna pick up the brat with me?" Kurt just nodded, giving Puck a little supportive nudge.
So, they pick up Sarah, and the school has been informed that Elijah Puckerman is not allowed near either of his children, and Noah totally makes Kurt drive the long way home so that he can tell if his Dad is following them (it's totally a blessing that his truck is on bricks in Burt's garage right now and their in Kurt's badass Navigator, because there is no way his old man will think this is anything Puck could afford). Except Puck and his Ma get into a huge fight right before dinner.
Burt and Kurt are in the kitchen and Sarah's upstairs playing and Puck just can't believe what she's fucking saying. "What the hell do you mean, talk it out? There's nothing to talk out. He's a piece of shit, end of."
"Noah, sweetie, I understand your anger, but this isn't as easy as that."
"Yes it fucking is, you get a lawyer, you serve him with those fucking divorce papers and he gets the fuck out of our lives and stays out this time." Puck's over it, so very over it. He doesn't need the old man any more, he's done all his learning. He learned how to tie his laces himself, how to tell the time himself, how to play guitar himself, how to play baseball, football, basketball, all by himself, how to ride his bike, how to pick up chicks, how to drive, how to roll a joint, how to land a fucking base jump. He does not need or want that low-life deadbeat near his family.
"What about Sarah? You don't think she deserves to see him?"
"What the fuck does that have to do with anything? Carole was the one there when she was born, he doesn't know what she looks like, she doesn't even know who he is."
"She needs a father, Noah."
"She has Burt!" He understands that she's all emotional about this -once upon a time, his mother was in love with a rough around the edges, cocky Elijah Puckerman who had dreams of making it big and having her on his arm to show off. Puck knows he was an accident -not a mistake, an accident- and he totally fucked up all their plans, but when the fuck does that give a guy a reason to bail on them? "He hasn't been here for eight years, he deserves jack fucking shit."
"I wish you wouldn't curse so much."
"I wish you wouldn't be so fucking stupid to think he's suddenly changed or something. He hasn't! He'll be here for a week, maybe two. He'll need money or a place to crash. He's just gonna fuck up again. God, Ma. We're good, we're great. We've got something here and he's just, fuck." Why the hell doesn't she get it?
"Noah, I need to see him." Closure, Berry would tell him that it was about closure and maybe he should get his own or whatever, but his Ma is just being stupid. He shakes his head.
"If he comes near me, or I find him near Sarah, I will beat the shit out of him." He doesn't stay for dinner, he just leaves, walks around town in the freezing cold without a jacket and fucking broods. He could totally go and sit outside the 7/11 until someone takes pity on him and buys him a six pack, he could even find a house party to crash and get wasted, but really, he sort of wants to be home right then.
He waits until midnight, climbs up the side of the house and in through his bedroom window. It's not his bedroom he's interested in being in though, he just changes into his sweats and a muscle shirt before heading down the hall towards Kurt's room and letting himself in. Kurt sits up when the door clicks shut and gives a sigh of relief, flipping the covers on his bed back for Noah to climb in and then wrapping himself around Noah's shoulders and chest.
"I hate him."
"I know you do, but your mother doesn't. Gaga only knows why, everything he's put you through." It feels good to have Kurt on his side, sort of. For Kurt not to be telling him that he should talk to his Dad, that him being back might be a chance to reconnect, that they could mend things. Puck doesn't want to, because Sarah needs stable and dependable and awesome, and that's Burt. And Noah is more than fine with Burt being a stand in Dad, because not once, at all, in the last nine months has Burt Hummel let any of them down. And that's not something his deadbeat Dad can say.
He stays mad at his Ma for a whole day. She checks on him in the morning, probably just to make sure he came home, and he completely ignores breakfast, even when Sarah comes up to ask him what's wrong. He and Kurt drive her to school again and Noah is a complete dick to everyone at school; everyone except Mercy, Kurt and Rachel funnily enough. The four of them take a table in the cafeteria for lunch, since Puck slept with Quinn at the start of the year and popped her cherry and then she sort of broke down and told Finn and then he sort of started hating Puck, well, he's not really bothered with the jocks table since then (the general consensus is that if he'll fuck his best friends girlfriend for no reason, no ones girlfriend is safe and really, he's already done most of them). He's filled in on the gossip -really, how does Mercedes know all this, and Rachel tells him about Jacob Ben Israel -and how he tried to blackmail her and finally he has someone he can at least intimidate to hell and back, because seriously, it's creepy and he's known Rachel -and Jewfro- since he was three and shit is not cool (he's totally of the opinion that if he's friends with Mercy and Kurt, he should just bite the bullet and be friends with Berry too).
When Noah, Kurt and Sarah get home, Burt just sort of pulls Kurt and Sarah aside before nodding Noah into the kitchen. His Ma is sitting at the table, sobbing and Noah definitely can't stay mad at her for long. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and she moves to cling to his waist, sobbing against his chest and they stay like that until she's hiccuping and sniffing and his shirt has this big wet spot over his heart. "You were right, you were right and I should've known, I should've known all along and," this is another reason he hates his father. The fact that the asshole can reduce his Ma, this strong, independent, awesome woman into a sobbing wreck, it's just not fucking right.
"Fuck 'im." She rolls her eyes, but doesn't comment on the curse. "C'mon Ma, eight years. We might've needed him some of the time, but he was never there, we coped. Now look at us. You and Burt, Ma, Sarah and me have never seen you this happy. And yeah, I know I fuck up, and I do stupid shit, but Christ Ma, you did great with us. We're great because you're fucking awesome and we don't need him for shit. We're good now, we're a family now. He's not part of it." And they are -even if he is still making out with Kurt.
"I called a lawyer today, Hiram Berry,"
"Rachel's Dad?"
"Yeah, he's going to serve the papers tomorrow." Fucking good. The sooner she's divorced from that low-life scum, the better. And yeah, he hears from Rachel that his Dad isn't happy with things, that he's getting his own lawyer to look shit over, but Rachel's Dad is like awesome or something and has this iron clad case and there's the whole abandonment issue and the lack of child support and what not, so Noah's not worried.
"So," him and Kurt sit up on Friday night, letting Burt and his Ma rule the downstairs and pretty much stay out of the way while Sarah is at a Princess Party at Hannah and Daniella's house. "Your mom and dad are getting that divorce." And Noah is aware of this, things are processing. "Dad could ask her to marry him." And he's thought of that too, and frankly, he'd be okay with it.
"We're not related, Kurt. We'd be step-siblings at best, we'd still have different last names and different parents. It's not an issue." Really, Noah wonders why Kurt still cares about what people think, after all this time. "Unless it really matters?"
"I don't think it does," Kurt nuzzles a little into Noah's side, and it's really nice the way they can just do that, without it feeling weird at all. "But maybe,"
"We should tell Burt and Ruth?" It has crossed his mind a few times; telling their respective parents, potentially telling Mercy if she can keep her gossip in, Rachel too. But things usually come up and he just doesn't mention it to Kurt or something. "Yeah, I think so too."
They don't want to do it just yet though, because things are still pretty new and it's sort of comfortable to just lie around in one of their rooms and make out or watch a movie and for Noah to just pet at Kurt's hair or neck or back while Kurt lies over Noah's chest. But it's going to be soon, Noah's pretty sure of that, considering the definite progression of things.
Noah's just hoping that his Ma doesn't freak the everloving fuck out.
Rating: PG 13
Characters: Noah 'Puck' Puckerman, Kurt Hummel, Ma Puckerman, Sarah Puckerman, Burt Hummel
Pairing: Kurt/Puck
Warnings: Fluff
Spoilers: vague season one (AU)
Disclaimer: Not mine. No money. No affiliation.
A/N: from the glee_fluff_meme, prompt here.
Summary: With the Puckerman's and Hummel's slowly becoming family, it's only Noah's luck that something come along to screw it all up. He really might be his father's son.
Continuation of Almost but Not Quite Really
Note: As it's AU, and I'm sort of lazy, I have ignored BabyGate in that Quinn never got preggers.
If you'd told him all this nine months ago, well, you'd be in the hospital eating through a straw if he's really honest. It's not that he has any problem with it, not at all, but it's not exactly what he ever would've expected going on. Like, ever.
Thing was, everything sort of got better. Puck's always been pretty adamant that they don't need his Dad -clearly they've gotten by just fine without him. Sarah wouldn't know him if he walked through the front door and Puck would probably punch him if he did. But they were fine, right? Ma got by, he helped out, Sarah was great. Except then Ma started dating, and okay, a little bit weird. Yeah, she'd gone out with a few guys over the years, but they were all just stupid little dates and usually only the one night. There was one memorable time when she'd texted Puck to get him to come and crash the date with Sarah because it was that bad -no really, he had to drag his sister to Breadsticks so that he could glare at the guy who had his hand on his mother’s butt. It was an interesting night.
But Burt was different -in a lot of ways. He'd never seen his mother come in from a Parents Association meeting smiling. Never. Usually, at those meetings she'd end up saying something and one of the cougars would get all flustered and when she came home he'd get an ear bashing for sleeping with women old enough to be his mother. Not this time, this time she came in talking about this wonderful man who asked her out, and then, when the date actually happened, fuck, Puck thought he'd be peeling her off the ceiling she was that high.
So, it went on like that for a bit, and Puck was cool with it, even if it was Hummel's old man, cause really, his Ma deserved a little bit of decent attention. And Kurt was alright, kinda. Not that Puck would be admitting that then.
Turns out, they might've needed a dad figure, even if it wasn't their Dad. Living with Burt and Kurt -and Sarah made so many jokes about that one night that Puck literally snorted soda out his nose- was a lot easier than Puck would've thought. Burt was cool with a lot of things -like his music and the fact that he had weights in the garage and Sarah adding Hannah Montana and America's Next Top Model onto the TiVo (which, according to Kurt, was not as good as Project Runway, and is what Puck blames on the loss of two of his shirts which Sarah decided to Frankenstein while playing Project Runway herself). And Kurt's pretty okay too. He doesn't do the lawn, because the little diva gets all blotchy and shit and complains, so Puck just does it when it needs it and Kurt takes one of his nights doing dishes without commenting, and all in all they sort of work around the fact that they hate each other.
Until Puck realises that he doesn't actually hate the little diva. Sure, he's always thought Kurt was a stuck up little bitch, but living with him? He's not, really. He watches all these car shows with his Dad and gabs with Puck's Ma about hairstyles and celebrities and stuff that Puck listens to, but isn't in the least bit bothered about. And he doesn't make comment about Puck's really shit vision and need for glasses, which he could, because Puck fucking hates his contacts and gets them out as soon as possible and Kurt just always sees his ridiculous glasses and never passes a remark. And Ma sort of fires off this throwaway comment one night, while he's sitting on the sofa in his sweats, t-shirt and glasses with a bowl of cereal listening to her talk about work -and Burt pretty much told her she was working one job and not two, so pick one and quit the other- when she gets up and leans over to kiss his forehead like she hasn't done since he was seven. "I'm so glad things are working out, that we're sort of like a family now." And Puck would protest that they were a family before, just a smaller one, like Burt and Kurt were a family. Now they're two families making up a bigger house.
But she's actually right. Kurt and Burt were father and son, yes. But it's pretty obvious from just how much Kurt adores Ma that they were missing something. And yeah, Noah tried to step up, but he's got this habit of doing really stupid shit before even thinking and it sort of fucks a lot of stuff up for him and his Ma and they try, but it's not like she's the best at laying down the law because she sort of depends on him a little too much for the adult stuff with Sarah. So, they were missing that male authority figure that might've kept Noah from pretty much doing all the 'Puck' worthy shit that he did.
Burt kinda filled that space.
And 'sort of' being a family meant that Noah didn't feel in the least bit worried about seeing Kurt first thing in the morning before school, before he's had his coffee and is a walking zombie; hair all over the place, sleep filled eyes, rumpled to hell with pillow creases on his face, and Noah totally finding it adorable in a not-so-platonic way. Which, at first, shit, but then, not so much.
Because he's started to notice a few things about Kurt, and one of them would be the way he kind of stares at Noah in his glasses. And it's not that 'ha, you are less awesome than you think' it's more the thoughtful stare that Noah hasn't been able to figure out. And then Kurt shaves his mohawk back in and kisses him. And well, Noah's pretty sure he knows what that thoughtful stare might be all about now.
It's cool and Kurt freaks out, he's a little freaked out as well. He's still a little freaked out when his Ma and Burt come back from their little get-away (which Puck knows is just his Ma's way of quietly saying she and Burt are having sex and frankly, he's a little uncomfortable with knowing this) and he's sitting on the sofa again with his cereal.
"Mohawk back?" His Ma has always known that he has a weird thing about his hair -even before it was a mohawk, it was kept short, because it curled, and he hated it. Sarah hated him for having curly hair and her getting boring straight hair. Genetics hated them. "Kurt shave it for you?" He just nodded, because it's obvious, since it's straight.
"Didn't do it in the sink, don't worry." She just laughed and stroked her fingers through it and Noah could only think about when Kurt did it and how good it felt and well, damn.
"Not out on a date or something?"
"Nope," Noah's not so much 'dating' anyone as not so much sleeping with cougars, because it's kind of degrading in a certain way sometimes. "Figured I'd pick up Sarah in the morning, you guys can sleep in." He gets a kiss goodnight from his Ma and a shoulder squeeze from Burt and frankly, it feels more like family than he's ever had before.
It takes Kurt a week to get over the whole kiss thing and then they totally move past it and well, there are much better ways to spend free periods than recoding the hockey player’s locker combos. And it's pretty much this weirdly stable relationship. Because they hang out -which confuses some people, and sometimes Sarah tags along for a night out or something, but it's still pretty cool. And the make outs are pretty fucking awesome. So yeah, not something he would've ever expected to happen, but pretty fucking awesome that it did.
So, he wears his glasses a little more often, because it totally gets Kurt all hot and bothered, and he's doing a lot better in class and stuff, because he actually attends -turns out that's half the battle really, and he's pretty sure that everything is sort of on track for once. But that never really lasts, does it. He's standing at his locker, shoving his Chemistry book as far in as he can, as if it'll teach the book a lesson or something, when he hears the voice that he's never forgotten, even after all these years. "Looks like you got something from your mother's side of the family."
He turns around; staring because he's pretty sure he might've just fallen asleep in Chemistry or something, but nope. He hasn't. Of all the places and all the times, who the hell would think that the middle of the school day and the school hall would be a good idea to surprise the son you walked out on eight years ago?
Apparently, his Dad did.
"What, no hug?"
"I swear to anything you think is sacred, step towards me and I will break your smug fucking face." He's pretty sure he would, the fucker better realise that because he highly doubts his Ma would like to explain to the cops just why Puck broke his old man’s face. "What the fuck are you doing here?" He's aware of the few stares from the people dumb enough to actually gawk at him; Mercy and Kurt are further down the hall, Finn is along the other side and Rachel somewhere to his left. He's pretty sure he just saw Jacob Ben Israel and his stupid camera, but he's so past caring.
"Stopped by the house, little bit surprised to find a couple of black kids in there." Noah didn't actually know who had bought their old house, only that it had sold -complete with the deck chair on the roof.
"We moved." He is so not interested in having a conversation with this man, he's far more likely to punch him or start yelling and he's trying not to cause a scene but the urge is just getting far greater to let loose. "What the fuck are you doing here?" Shouldn't the school like check on this shit? Who the fuck they just let wander in and around and seriously, there could be murderers or sex offenders or piece of shit deadbeat parents.
"Well, when I couldn't find you at home, school was the best place to go. I want to talk to your mother, son."
"She doesn't want to talk to you, so take your piece of shit ass and fuck back off to wherever you've been for the last eight years. We don't need shit from you." Santana and Quinn have appeared in the mass of people and Noah hates that so many people are all up in his shit, and he hates his old man for doing this in the middle of school and he hates the school for not locking it's fucking doors or something. Brittany comes out of a classroom at the end of the hall with Mr Schue and Coach Beiste and at least this will be ended in a minute or two.
"I want to see my daughter," he's still got this stupid pleading look on his face and Puck's fist curls at his side, "I deserve to see her."
"You don't even know her fucking name, you don't deserve shit!" Schue's hand lands on his shoulder just as he takes a step forwards and he knows he's about to let loose. "Get the fuck out of here and stay away from my sister." Sarah doesn't need this jackass, Sarah has him, and Kurt, and Burt, and their Ma and that's all she needs.
"Sir, you're going to have to leave." Schue isn't in the least bit authoritative, but Beiste is, and that's probably what makes his Dad back the fuck off and out of the school and hopefully off the face of the planet. He's not lucky enough for that to happen. "Puck, you okay?" He's not, no, and everyone is standing around staring and Puck just pulls his shoulder away from Schue's grasp and storms out -his storm out isn't nearly as effective as a Rachel Berry storm out, but that's cool, because he's not a pint-sized diva anyway.
He sits on the bleachers, calls his Ma to warn her, calls Burt to tell him and then calls his grandmother because he knows that she sure as shit wants to know where the hell her son has been for eight fucking years, and his Bubbie is a scary woman. Ma says she'll call the school to let him leave early to pick up Sarah and make sure that he doesn't get near her and eventually, Kurt slinks out to sit on the bleachers beside him. It's a little tense, mostly because Puck doesn't want to talk about it, but Kurt is just waiting for it.
"I always wondered if he'd ever come back, y'know? If he'd have some excuse or if he'd just waltz in as if he'd just gone to a fucking store in Germany to get those smokes he left to get." He hates that he cares, hates that he's sort of curious, hates that he's feeling all these stupid feelings again. "Seriously, he doesn't even know Sarah's name, he doesn't. Just that she's a little girl. Wouldn't know her if she walked past him in the street. Piece of fucking shit just picked up and left, what the fuck kind of asshole walks out on his pregnant wife and saunters back eight years later like it was nothing? The fuck does he think he is?" Kurt slides closer, leaning against Puck's shoulder and it's the most contact they'd had at school, where people can see, because Kurt wants to be just as private as Noah's gotten about all his shit.
"What did your mom say?" Noah's not sure if Kurt's a little worried about the development here -Burt knows mostly everything about the break down in the Puckerman household, and his Ma is totally in a much better place with Burt than she had ever been with Elijah Puckerman, and frankly, Puck will give his mother a verbal lashing if she even thinks about entertaining that piece of shit and his sorry excuses.
"She's going home, I'm picking up Sarah. I called Burt to let him know." If anything, his Ma was totally going to need Burt's support for this whole thing. "You wanna pick up the brat with me?" Kurt just nodded, giving Puck a little supportive nudge.
So, they pick up Sarah, and the school has been informed that Elijah Puckerman is not allowed near either of his children, and Noah totally makes Kurt drive the long way home so that he can tell if his Dad is following them (it's totally a blessing that his truck is on bricks in Burt's garage right now and their in Kurt's badass Navigator, because there is no way his old man will think this is anything Puck could afford). Except Puck and his Ma get into a huge fight right before dinner.
Burt and Kurt are in the kitchen and Sarah's upstairs playing and Puck just can't believe what she's fucking saying. "What the hell do you mean, talk it out? There's nothing to talk out. He's a piece of shit, end of."
"Noah, sweetie, I understand your anger, but this isn't as easy as that."
"Yes it fucking is, you get a lawyer, you serve him with those fucking divorce papers and he gets the fuck out of our lives and stays out this time." Puck's over it, so very over it. He doesn't need the old man any more, he's done all his learning. He learned how to tie his laces himself, how to tell the time himself, how to play guitar himself, how to play baseball, football, basketball, all by himself, how to ride his bike, how to pick up chicks, how to drive, how to roll a joint, how to land a fucking base jump. He does not need or want that low-life deadbeat near his family.
"What about Sarah? You don't think she deserves to see him?"
"What the fuck does that have to do with anything? Carole was the one there when she was born, he doesn't know what she looks like, she doesn't even know who he is."
"She needs a father, Noah."
"She has Burt!" He understands that she's all emotional about this -once upon a time, his mother was in love with a rough around the edges, cocky Elijah Puckerman who had dreams of making it big and having her on his arm to show off. Puck knows he was an accident -not a mistake, an accident- and he totally fucked up all their plans, but when the fuck does that give a guy a reason to bail on them? "He hasn't been here for eight years, he deserves jack fucking shit."
"I wish you wouldn't curse so much."
"I wish you wouldn't be so fucking stupid to think he's suddenly changed or something. He hasn't! He'll be here for a week, maybe two. He'll need money or a place to crash. He's just gonna fuck up again. God, Ma. We're good, we're great. We've got something here and he's just, fuck." Why the hell doesn't she get it?
"Noah, I need to see him." Closure, Berry would tell him that it was about closure and maybe he should get his own or whatever, but his Ma is just being stupid. He shakes his head.
"If he comes near me, or I find him near Sarah, I will beat the shit out of him." He doesn't stay for dinner, he just leaves, walks around town in the freezing cold without a jacket and fucking broods. He could totally go and sit outside the 7/11 until someone takes pity on him and buys him a six pack, he could even find a house party to crash and get wasted, but really, he sort of wants to be home right then.
He waits until midnight, climbs up the side of the house and in through his bedroom window. It's not his bedroom he's interested in being in though, he just changes into his sweats and a muscle shirt before heading down the hall towards Kurt's room and letting himself in. Kurt sits up when the door clicks shut and gives a sigh of relief, flipping the covers on his bed back for Noah to climb in and then wrapping himself around Noah's shoulders and chest.
"I hate him."
"I know you do, but your mother doesn't. Gaga only knows why, everything he's put you through." It feels good to have Kurt on his side, sort of. For Kurt not to be telling him that he should talk to his Dad, that him being back might be a chance to reconnect, that they could mend things. Puck doesn't want to, because Sarah needs stable and dependable and awesome, and that's Burt. And Noah is more than fine with Burt being a stand in Dad, because not once, at all, in the last nine months has Burt Hummel let any of them down. And that's not something his deadbeat Dad can say.
He stays mad at his Ma for a whole day. She checks on him in the morning, probably just to make sure he came home, and he completely ignores breakfast, even when Sarah comes up to ask him what's wrong. He and Kurt drive her to school again and Noah is a complete dick to everyone at school; everyone except Mercy, Kurt and Rachel funnily enough. The four of them take a table in the cafeteria for lunch, since Puck slept with Quinn at the start of the year and popped her cherry and then she sort of broke down and told Finn and then he sort of started hating Puck, well, he's not really bothered with the jocks table since then (the general consensus is that if he'll fuck his best friends girlfriend for no reason, no ones girlfriend is safe and really, he's already done most of them). He's filled in on the gossip -really, how does Mercedes know all this, and Rachel tells him about Jacob Ben Israel -and how he tried to blackmail her and finally he has someone he can at least intimidate to hell and back, because seriously, it's creepy and he's known Rachel -and Jewfro- since he was three and shit is not cool (he's totally of the opinion that if he's friends with Mercy and Kurt, he should just bite the bullet and be friends with Berry too).
When Noah, Kurt and Sarah get home, Burt just sort of pulls Kurt and Sarah aside before nodding Noah into the kitchen. His Ma is sitting at the table, sobbing and Noah definitely can't stay mad at her for long. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and she moves to cling to his waist, sobbing against his chest and they stay like that until she's hiccuping and sniffing and his shirt has this big wet spot over his heart. "You were right, you were right and I should've known, I should've known all along and," this is another reason he hates his father. The fact that the asshole can reduce his Ma, this strong, independent, awesome woman into a sobbing wreck, it's just not fucking right.
"Fuck 'im." She rolls her eyes, but doesn't comment on the curse. "C'mon Ma, eight years. We might've needed him some of the time, but he was never there, we coped. Now look at us. You and Burt, Ma, Sarah and me have never seen you this happy. And yeah, I know I fuck up, and I do stupid shit, but Christ Ma, you did great with us. We're great because you're fucking awesome and we don't need him for shit. We're good now, we're a family now. He's not part of it." And they are -even if he is still making out with Kurt.
"I called a lawyer today, Hiram Berry,"
"Rachel's Dad?"
"Yeah, he's going to serve the papers tomorrow." Fucking good. The sooner she's divorced from that low-life scum, the better. And yeah, he hears from Rachel that his Dad isn't happy with things, that he's getting his own lawyer to look shit over, but Rachel's Dad is like awesome or something and has this iron clad case and there's the whole abandonment issue and the lack of child support and what not, so Noah's not worried.
"So," him and Kurt sit up on Friday night, letting Burt and his Ma rule the downstairs and pretty much stay out of the way while Sarah is at a Princess Party at Hannah and Daniella's house. "Your mom and dad are getting that divorce." And Noah is aware of this, things are processing. "Dad could ask her to marry him." And he's thought of that too, and frankly, he'd be okay with it.
"We're not related, Kurt. We'd be step-siblings at best, we'd still have different last names and different parents. It's not an issue." Really, Noah wonders why Kurt still cares about what people think, after all this time. "Unless it really matters?"
"I don't think it does," Kurt nuzzles a little into Noah's side, and it's really nice the way they can just do that, without it feeling weird at all. "But maybe,"
"We should tell Burt and Ruth?" It has crossed his mind a few times; telling their respective parents, potentially telling Mercy if she can keep her gossip in, Rachel too. But things usually come up and he just doesn't mention it to Kurt or something. "Yeah, I think so too."
They don't want to do it just yet though, because things are still pretty new and it's sort of comfortable to just lie around in one of their rooms and make out or watch a movie and for Noah to just pet at Kurt's hair or neck or back while Kurt lies over Noah's chest. But it's going to be soon, Noah's pretty sure of that, considering the definite progression of things.
Noah's just hoping that his Ma doesn't freak the everloving fuck out.