It's 6am, and I'm rearing to go!
Title: Four Times Puck Surprised Kurt, and One Time Kurt Returned the Favor.
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Slash
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Puck/Kurt
Spoilers: Up to S02E4, I guess.
Summary: Four times Puck surprised Kurt, and one time Kurt returned the favor.
“Mrs. Hudson, dinner is awesome. You really know the way to a man’s heart.” Puck smiled at his long time friend’s mother, in a surprisingly not badass sort of way.
“Well, Puck, I’m afraid that’ll be Kurt who knows the way to a man’s heart in this case. Dinner was all him.” Carole looked over at the smaller boy, who was packaging up leftovers on the counter.
Kurt flushed and braced himself for what was sure to be an extremely rude comment. Or maybe Puck would wait until there were no witnesses. He really wished Carole would have just taken the compliment for herself, despite the fact that it was one of his mom’s recipes.
“Comment still stands.” The taller boy murmured, low enough that Kurt was pretty sure nobody else had heard.
With a glance over his shoulder, Kurt confirmed that nobody else had heard and he was pretty sure he was red from the eyes down.
And was Puck… leering at him?
-=-=-=-
As Kurt gracefully hopped out of his car, he caught sight of the Neanderthals at the dumpster. He checked his hair in the mirror, removing his expensive scarf and over coat with a resigned sigh. He trudged over to the dumpsters, frowning and feeling naked without his accessories.
The boys standing at the large, reeking, metal object cat called and gestured rudely. Really, who took the time to just hang out by a monstrous garbage can, anyway?
As Kurt deposited his bag at his feet, and one of the larger barbarians moved in to hoist him up, he closed his eyes. He’d made the mistake of keeping them open before, and week old spaghetti sauce was almost as bad as getting sand kicked in your eyes.
“Hey, Kurt! Mr. Schue wants you in the choir room.” Puck’s presence entered the picture so quickly that the boys just stared and Kurt had no choice but to just allow himself to be taken by the arm and steered away. As Puck rounded the corner of the school, still clutching Kurt’s upper arm, he stopped.
“Get to class before they realized I took their play thing away.” He muttered, looking as if he were wondering if he’d lost his mind.
Kurt was nodding and heading that way when horror dawned on him, “My bag. I left my bag.”
The fear in Kurt’s eyes shot through Puck’s stomach like a slug shot. He darted back around the corner, and returned clutching the messenger bag in one hand.
He tossed it at Kurt, straightened his shirt, and walked away. Well, sauntered would be a more appropriate word.
Kurt stared after him, mouth agape.
-=-=-=-
Kurt sniffled, snuffled, and coughed. Screw colds, he’d rather be at school being tortured. Though, recently the torture had dimmed a lot. It seemed like every time something horrible was about to happen, a certain tall and tanned boy would come out of nowhere and to the rescue.
He lay back on his couch, whining to nobody about how he was dying. He tossed tissues into the trash can, and rearranged his table of anything and everything medical in the house. God forbid he have to move from his couch, and someone find him passed out on the floor.
The sound of a knock on the front door made him grimace.
When the door opened, he had just enough time to grab the nearest available weapon. In retrospect, that was stupid, because he knew the door was locked and whoever came in had to have a key. But come on, dying of the plague here.
“Err, you’re not gonna beat me with that, are you?” Puck stood in the doorway, one hand clutching a brown paper sack, and the other a grocery bag.
Kurt looked at the bottle of Nyquil in his hands, and sat it down gingerly on the coffee table, “Noah Puckerman, how in the world did you get a key to my house?”
“Ah,” He shuffled his feet, “Mercedes told me you were sick. It took me over an hour, but I convinced her I wasn’t going to murder you in your sleep, and she told me where you keep your spare.”
With a completely baffled nod, Kurt could only watch as Puck advanced and sat his bags on the table.
“I brought you hot soup. That vegetable stuff with no flavor or whatever the hell you usually eat. And, I brought you some movies. Thought you might get bored just sitting here.” Puck felt like he was rambling, but it really couldn’t be helped.
He was already edging toward the door, when the soprano’s voice called him back.
“Do you wanna… stay? Watch a movie? I am desperately bored. Even you’re looking like good company.” The words were rude, but the tone was almost awed.
It was a bad idea, definitely a bad idea. But school didn’t let out for hours, and he didn’t feel like going back… He was already sitting down on the couch, and opening the bag of movies.
“Fine, but text your girl and tell her I haven’t killed you or anything.”
-=-=-=-
A knock on the door jolted Kurt out of his blanket and pillow cocoon on his couch. As he ran to the door in a panic, he tried to think that logically someone would have called if his dad weren’t ok, not just shown up at the door.
Wrenching the door open, tears already in his eyes, “Is he-.”
Puck stood sheepishly at the door, looking out of place with hands tucked into his jean pockets, “Hey dude, Hudson said the hospital kicked you out after visiting hours. I was around and thought I’d stop by to make sure nobody had broken in or burnt the house down or something.”
The next thing Puck knew, he had his arms full of a warm body. The smaller boy was shuddering in Puck’s arms, sobbing without noise and feeling for all the world like he was falling apart.
He had no idea what he was doing. Not a single idea. But he hoisted the boy against his chest, kicked the door closed behind him, and carried him to the couch. Shoving pillows and blankets out of the way, he set him down. When Kurt turned a tear stained face up to him, he mentally cursed himself and sat down, pulling him back into his arms and tossing blankets over them.
While his hands smoothed the surprisingly product free hair of his broken charge, he murmured whatever nonsensical words came to him and rocked them gently.
“He’ll be fine. You know he’ll be fine. I’m here for you. I’m not going anywhere.” Puck knew what it was like to lose a father. But the thought of anything happening to his mother sent a bolt of pain through his chest. He couldn’t imagine what Kurt was going through, and he had no idea what to do, but damn it all if he wasn’t going to try.
Before long, the other boy was asleep in his arms, face finally peaceful.
-=-=-=-
When Burt was finally home from the hospital, and feeling well enough to be home alone, Kurt went back to school.
He felt like he was missing chunks out of the day, but if anyone noticed the bags under his eyes or how drawn he looked, they said nothing. And if his application of make up to try to conceal said bags was just this side of amateur… Well, even Mercedes knew not to comment.
He was slamming his locker, and leaning his head against the cool metal when a voice made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
“Hummel, you look like hell.” The voice was soft, meant for just them, and not at all unkind.
“Mm, thanks. Needed that pick me up.” Kurt lifted his head with what felt like entirely too much effort. He hadn’t been sleeping, too busy worrying over his dad’s health to mind his own.
The hallway was deserted, everyone in their classes. It wasn’t like Kurt to be late for any class, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care, yet. He was jubilant over his father’s returning health, but the lack of sleep was really getting to him.
Puck stepped closer, reaching out a finger to lift Kurt’s chin, forcing him to look into his eyes.
“You need sleep, that’s what you need. I’m taking you home. You’re not in any condition to drive, Hummel.”
“I have a name you know.” Kurt’s normally acidic tone was entirely too pathetic to be taken seriously, and Puck smirked.
“Kurt.” Puck leaned in, and before Kurt had a second to panic, pressed surprisingly gentle to lips to the slack ones belonging to the other boy.
The kiss was quick, and chaste, and Puck grabbed Kurt’s arm to steer him out of the school before he could even formulate a reply.
“Yep, definitely need sleep, because I think I’m starting to hallucinate.” Kurt’s voice was low, shocked.
Puck only chuckled as he opened the passenger door for the other boy.
-=-=-=-
He was losing his mind; he had to be. Kurt mumbled to himself as his fingers clicked out the letters on his phone. Why he was inviting Noah Puckerman over for any reason was beyond him. And the excitement he felt over Puck’s affirmation had to be his imagination.
When Kurt let Puck into his house, and led him downstairs to watch a movie, he could almost fool himself into thinking this was a date.
Puck on the other hand, was just as baffled. He never really thought the other boy would warm up to him. Especially not enough to actually invite him over. He had, after all, tortured him through grade school. And if he was being nice lately, he still didn’t think it would make up for the Hell he’d inflicted on the smaller boy.
Kurt disappeared and reappeared with sweating cans of soda and a big bowl of popcorn. He set them on the table in front of the couch, and sat next to Puck, leaving a good person sized gap between them.
“I don’t bite, unless you like it like that.” Puck leered, and waggled his eyebrows. What a lame line, but Kurt felt himself flushing anyway.
Puck smirked. Yep, definitely still a badass.
Eyes narrowed, it seemed like Kurt had made up his mind about something. He slid all the way over on the couch until he was pressed against Puck from shoulder to thigh.
He leaned up, and sealed his lips over Puck’s. Before he could lose his courage, he wrapped his arms around the other boy’s neck, running his fingers over the soft skin at the base of his neck.
When the other boy didn’t respond right away, he had a moment of panic. Maybe he’d read into everything wrong.
But strong arms wrapped themselves around Kurt’s slender waist, and Kurt knew everything was right.
He shimmied into the taller boy’s lap, arms still firmly in place as he ran his tongue over Puck’s lower lip. When their tongues touched, they both sighed.
The movie forgotten, Kurt explored Puck’s mouth with his tongue, tasting popcorn and the sticky sweet taste of cola.
When Kurt moved away to look into Puck’s eyes, Puck raised an eyebrow at him.
“Please tell me tomorrow isn’t going to go back to you tossing me in dumpsters and slushie facials?” Kurt asked, his voice husky but hesitant. Almost pleading, needing to know if this was a phase, or if this was the start of something new.
Puck could only shake his head. No, it definitely wasn’t going to go back to that, “I’m a badass no matter what I do, I don’t have to toss you into a dumpster to prove that.”
Kurt rolled his eyes, “In that case… Maybe we should take this little party to my bed.”
Puck’s eyebrow shot up at that, “I didn’t know you had it in you, Hummel.”
“I don’t. Yet.”
Kurt was still giggling as Puck carried him across the room to the still pristine bed.
~Fin
-=-=-=-
A/N: The urge to write a sequel to this is great.