teacher puck

Thankfully Kurt was too far gone to think about anything dad-related when Puck called him a “good boy”. Kurt just mewled at the phrase and moaned at how easy Puck’s finger slid inside of him. He pushed back against his finger, though, trying to somehow get more of it inside of him. Puck then slipped in another finger and wasted no time with any usual teasing or careful, slow prep. Kurt loved how fast it was, and how Noah kept spreading his fingers and moving fast and hitting all kinds of places inside of him. It felt amazing and Kurt almost forgot that there was going to be more to this.

When Puck spanked him again, Kurt was sure he was going to come for a moment. He cried out in pain and pleasure, his ass stinging, but he nodded silently at Puck’s command and squeezed hard around Puck’s fingers. Puck slapped him again and Kurt cried out again, temporarily loosening around Puck’s fingers from the shocking action. He soon tightened again, only for Puck to say he wanted to be in there. Oh, yes, that was a thing that was going to and needed to happen. Before Kurt could even voice his approval, Puck was slipping his fingers out and pulling him up and around.

Kurt roughly kissed Puck back, too aroused to care about finesse or precision as they sloppily kissed. His arms circled around Puck’s neck, one of his hands running up to his hair as Puck backed him up against the couch. When Puck pulled away, Kurt almost begged him to just fucking him without a condom, but he managed to let it go as Puck dug for one in his bag. Kurt wrapped a hand around his own dick as he waited, unable to stop himself from stroking himself as he anticipated what would happen next. Soon he was gasping as Puck pushed back towards him and lifted up his legs, his cock brushing against his crack. Kurt whined and put his hands on Puck’s shoulders this time. “I love when you fuck me like this,” Kurt gasped, his legs squeezing around Puck’s hips for a brief moment.

Then, after Kurt gave Puck a nod, he slammed right in. Kurt cried out again, his eyes closing as pain and pleasure and fullness overwhelmed him. They hadn’t prepped him as much as usual, so it stung, but definitely in a hurts-so-good way. He still took a moment as Puck started to mark up his neck. Just a few seconds later, Kurt moaned, “Fuck me, Puck. Fuck me until I can’t fucking walk.” He squeezed around Puck’s cock and tried to move his hips against Puck’s to add extra incentive. He groaned and sunk his nails into Puck’s shoulders, harder than usual and then moved his mouth to Puck’s chest. He mirrored what Puck was doing to him, biting and sucking and nibbling and marking him up as much as he could. 

The cry that left Kurt’s mouth sent a shiver down Puck’s spine, his grip on the younger man’s body tightening. He sunk his teeth into Kurt’s shoulder, sucking a dark mark onto his pale skin as he listened to Kurt’s pathetic moans for more. With one last suck at the skin, he leaned back just enough to brace himself on the side of the couch and locked eyes with Kurt before driving into him again, harder this time, and slid one hand up to grip Kurt’s shoulder to keep him in place.

Puck could normally be pretty talkative during sex, always enjoying some dirty talk and some teasing, especially with Kurt, but not today. Today he was focused on giving Kurt exactly what he asked for, something rough and intense, and he wasn’t going to distract himself with his own words. The hand on Kurt’s shoulder squeezed tighter as Kurt’s did, wincing through his gritted teeth as Kurt’s nails dug into his skin harder than they ever had before. He groaned then, loving the pain more than he expected, and thrust his hips forward harder, tilting his head to the side to give Kurt more room to ravage his chest.

After a few moments, Puck slowed his hips and stood up straight again, hooking his arms around Kurt’s thighs to pull him in close again. He slid his hands up to his knees and spread his legs, watching as he drove his cock in hard before starting to thrust in shallowly. He glanced up at Kurt, smirking just slightly before picking him up and moving him down onto the couch, propping himself up onto his knees and letting Kurt’s legs rest on his shoulders. He pushed back inside hard, folding Kurt in half in the process as his mouth managed to find Kurt’s and his fingers pulled hard at his hair.

Puck sucked in a huge breath through his nose as Kurt’s lips wrapped around his cock. While Kurt normally liked to tease and build up a bit, that wasn’t the case today, and Puck’s eyes widened as Kurt gripped onto his thighs and moved hard and fast, his cock soon hitting the back of his throat. He moaned as Kurt squeezed his hips and pushed himself to his limits, moaning around his cock and rocking his own hips forward against nothing. All Puck could do was stare, shocked, and weave his fingers back into Kurt’s hair. 

He wasn’t expecting to feel Kurt’s teeth biting his thigh, and he squirmed in his seat as he winced, his legs spreading wider. He loved it and hated it at the same time, his body tensing as Kurt bit down again on the other thigh, sucking at his skin and talking so dirty. It was impossible to not rock his hips, his cock rubbing against Kurt’s forehead.

Puck pet Kurt’s hair as he listened, a small smile on his lips. “You’re so slutty,” he said with a low chuckle, thumbing over his temple. “I’ll fuck you so hard, sweetheart. Don’t you worry–” His words were swallowed up as Kurt’s mouth found him again, and he slid both hands into his hair, holding his head still as he fucked his mouth hard, moaning softly to himself as he watched the spit dribbling from Kurt’s lips.

“Fuck. That’s hot,” he said to himself as he pushed Kurt off of him, maybe a little too hard. He quickly grabbed his arm to keep him from falling back against the coffee table and then stood, pulling Kurt up with him. He kicked his shorts the rest of the way off and pulled his sweater off too before shoving Kurt down over the arm of the couch and quickly pulling his briefs down and off from around his ankles.

He got the lube out of Kurt’s bag and moved behind him again, his mind only in this moment and unable to think about anything else, which was a nice change. He set the bottle on the back of the couch and moved both hands to cup Kurt’s ass, rubbing over it soothingly and spreading his cheeks as he leaned in to lick over his hole. He gave him one long lick before pulling back and giving Kurt’s ass the hardest slap he could manage, his hand stinging fiercely at the contact. He took a breath, giving himself a moment before delivering another slap to the other side as Kurt wriggled beneath him. “You like that?” he asked with a smirk, then dove back in with no warning, burying his tongue between Kurt’s cheeks.

Kurt’s nails started to dig into Puck’s hip as he bit on Puck’s thigh. He could tell Puck was enjoying it to some degree, since his legs were spreading wider even though he winced. It was nice to see him so effected, really, by something other than how he sucked him off. Kurt grinned as Puck started rolling his hips forward, landing a bit of precome on his forehead. “I think you want that, too,” Kurt teased, “Maybe even almost as much as me.”

A low moan left Kurt’s mouth as Puck called him slutty; he normally would’ve thought about how much he hated getting turned on by being called something so demeaning, but he was too turned on too care. The arousal he was feeling only increased as Puck took a hold of his hair and started fucking his mouth. Kurt closed his eyes and let Puck do the work as he sucked around him. He could feel some spit leaving his lips and he vaguely heard Puck mumbling something, but he was enjoying himself too much to listen at that point.

Puck pushed him off his cock and Kurt started to lose his balance. Thankfully Puck caught him and dragged him back up to standing. He didn’t have much more time to think before Puck was pushing him over the arm of the couch. Kurt moaned louder than before as the fabric of the couch rested pressed against his erection and his ass was on display for Puck. “Oh fuck,” Kurt moaned, absolutely loving the position he was in, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to stay that way for too long; he wanted to be able to watch Puck fucking him and scratch up his back in the process.

Kurt’s cheeks were opened and Kurt moaned as Puck licked a hot stripe up his crack. Then Puck, with no warning, let go of his ass in order to smack him – hard. Kurt yelped in pain and surprise while his cock throbbed in need and his eyes teared up at the sting. Before he could say anything, Puck did the same to the other cheek, and Kurt’s reaction was the same, but this time his hips rolled forward against the couch as his ass stung. Kurt couldn’t even speak when Puck asked if he liked it, he just gave a small, approving whine in response. Puck didn’t seem to care about the answer anyways, since he went right back to eating his ass before Kurt had even finished his noise of approval. 

Kurt cried out and clenched the cushion underneath him as he moaned in pleasure. He wasn’t even sure what to do so he just laid there for a few moments, enjoying the pleasure of it all. Then, wanting and needing more, Kurt reached behind him to pull his cheeks apart for Puck. He pressed back against hit mouth as his thumb rubbed against the heated skin on his cheeks from Puck’s spanks. 

Puck blindly reached for the lube, popping it open with one hand as his tongue continued its work against Kurt’s hole. He finally pulled away for a breath, quickly coating his fingers and spreading the lube over Kurt’s hole. He didn’t waste any time slipping his middle finger into Kurt and sliding it in deep to the knuckle. “Fuck yeah. Good boy,” he murmured without much thought, starting to thrust the finger in slowly. Soon enough he had two fingers in and was working them faster than usual, biting back a moan at the wet sound of his fingers fucking hard and fast into the younger man, twisting and spreading with every few thrusts.

He pulled back slightly, his fingers in deep, and his other hand moved to deliver another hard slap to Kurt’s ass. “Squeeze,” he demanded, moaning as he did so and slapped again. “Okay, I need in there. C’mere.” He slipped his fingers out and pulled Kurt up roughly by his arms, turning him around so he was facing him.

Puck kissed him hard, their bodies slamming together, and they moved together as Puck pushed Kurt against the back of the couch. He pulled away to dig into Kurt’s bag again, finding a condom and getting it on as fast as he could. He lined himself up quickly and looked back down at Kurt, determining where he wanted him to give it to him as hard as he could. He finally pushed himself between his legs, his arms hooking around his thighs to pull him up closer, his cock slipping right between his cheeks.

Kurt was pleased when Puck agreed to what he was saying.  “Good,” Kurt said. Puck’s eyes were lit up with intensity and arousal, and it made a chill run up his spine. He licked over his lips, pretty sure his own eyes were reflecting the same look back. His cock was already half-hard from Puck just playing with the bottom of his underwear and he couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

He didn’t have to wait long to find out. Puck was soon pulling him into his lap and Kurt grinned as Puck ripped off his shirt. It was kind of nice having this sort of power on Puck’s arousal and actions. A thrill ran up his body and in his stomach as Puck started marking him up and holding onto his hips almost painfully tight. True, Kurt was a bit nervous about the whole thing, but he trusted Puck to not hurt him – at least not too much – and he still had a sense of control over this. The nerves combined with the arousal also meant there was no way he could think about anything but the moment, which was what he needed.

Puck complimented him as he made his way down his body, and Kurt just groaned and started rocking his hips against Puck’s, his cock hardening further in his tight briefs. Before Kurt could even say anything back to that comment, Puck pulled at his nipples and Kurt cried out in surprise, his back arching into the tugs. He lost his balance for a moment and fell forward onto Puck’s chest, his head on Puck’s shoulder. Kurt wasted no time in kissing along there, not thinking about possibly leaving marks on Puck’s skin – not that it was particularly easy to mark him up, anyways. But before he got too far, Puck pulled his head back by his hair, eliciting a groan from Kurt’s lips. His head had always been sensitive, which he was sure Puck realized by now. Kurt’s heart leapt as Puck looked at him in a way Kurt didn’t recognize and then kissed him rough and quick on his lips. Just how Kurt wanted it.

Another surprise came as Puck pushed Kurt onto the floor, mostly using the hold on his hair. Kurt followed his movements closely, though he let Puck pull his hair as much as possible. It felt too good to resist. He was already panting just from that, not to mention the submission of being down on his knees in front of Puck. 

Kurt nodded at Puck’s words, goosebumps raising on his arm at the tone of his voice. “Yes,” Kurt said obediently. At that point he couldn’t have thought about or even remember what he had been so upset about all day; all he could think about was Puck and their bodies and how hard he was getting. He opened his mouth, expecting Puck to push it into his mouth. Instead, He was shoving his face against it, his cock pressed against the outside of Kurt’s cheek. Kurt groaned and couldn’t stop himself from taking a deep breath through his nose.

Fighting a bit against Puck’s hold, Kurt moved his head enough to suck in the head of Puck’s mouth. HIs cock twitched in his briefs as he moaned around the head. He licked agains the slit and moaned again. It was then he realized that he wanted to do the same back to Puck; he wanted to fuck him up in the process, mark him up and drive him crazy. He needed Puck to enjoy this as much as he was going to.

Kurt wasted no time in bobbing down Puck’s shaft. His hands moved to Puck’s thighs and his nails dug into Puck’s skin. While his mouth was focused on wrecking himself on Puck’s cock, one hand made it up to Puck’s hip, which he grabbed tightly. He used the leverage to work himself down Puck’s shaft faster than usual, soon completely stuffing him down his mouth and throat. Kurt moaned as his own hips rolled against the air. He swallowed once, twice, and then pulled off to get more air.

“I love your cock,” Kurt said, his mouth moving to one of Puck’s thighs. He bit hard on a spot on Puck’s inner thigh, a small amount of white showing up against Puck’s skin for a short moment before it faded back to normal. “So much,” Kurt added, biting a against Puck’s other thigh. “I can’t wait for you to fuck me with it. You always fill me up so much and so good. I think about it all the time. Always just want you to bend me over,” Kurt said as his hand on Puck’s thigh moved to his cock to jerk it. “Want you to fuck me so hard I can’t walk,” Kurt murmured before taking the head back into his mouth again, his grip on Puck’s hip still tight.

Puck sucked in a huge breath through his nose as Kurt’s lips wrapped around his cock. While Kurt normally liked to tease and build up a bit, that wasn’t the case today, and Puck’s eyes widened as Kurt gripped onto his thighs and moved hard and fast, his cock soon hitting the back of his throat. He moaned as Kurt squeezed his hips and pushed himself to his limits, moaning around his cock and rocking his own hips forward against nothing. All Puck could do was stare, shocked, and weave his fingers back into Kurt’s hair. 

He wasn’t expecting to feel Kurt’s teeth biting his thigh, and he squirmed in his seat as he winced, his legs spreading wider. He loved it and hated it at the same time, his body tensing as Kurt bit down again on the other thigh, sucking at his skin and talking so dirty. It was impossible to not rock his hips, his cock rubbing against Kurt’s forehead.

Puck pet Kurt’s hair as he listened, a small smile on his lips. “You’re so slutty,” he said with a low chuckle, thumbing over his temple. “I’ll fuck you so hard, sweetheart. Don’t you worry--” His words were swallowed up as Kurt’s mouth found him again, and he slid both hands into his hair, holding his head still as he fucked his mouth hard, moaning softly to himself as he watched the spit dribbling from Kurt’s lips.

“Fuck. That’s hot,” he said to himself as he pushed Kurt off of him, maybe a little too hard. He quickly grabbed his arm to keep him from falling back against the coffee table and then stood, pulling Kurt up with him. He kicked his shorts the rest of the way off and pulled his sweater off too before shoving Kurt down over the arm of the couch and quickly pulling his briefs down and off from around his ankles.

Puck was surprised when he felt Kurt grabbing his arm, and he turned to look at him. Kurt was obviously touched, and while Puck knew he would like it, he didn’t think that it would affect him as much as it did. He just gave him a small smile in return and gave his arm a light squeeze. “You’re welcome,” he told him genuinely before heading off to the bathroom.

The shower didn’t last long, but it still felt amazing. He was trying his best to block out all of his thoughts, which were mostly about Rachel and work and the boy in his living room, and it was mostly successful until he stepped out of the hot shower and back into the cold bathroom. He sighed and dried his hair with a towel, then slipped into fresh briefs, gym shorts, and a zip-up hoodie. After brushing his teeth and stepping into his slippers, he padded back out to the living room.

It was hard not to notice how Kurt was sitting because his legs were practically hypnotizing, but when Kurt patted the couch next to him, Puck went over and sat down without much thought. He raised an eyebrow as Kurt started to thank him again, which seemed excessive, but he nodded, glad he was able to help. “Yeah, you’re welcome. I’m glad I could do something, even if it wasn’t much.” When it came down to it, it hadn’t been a lot, just a place to sleep and shower and some waffles, but Kurt obviously had needed some company, which Puck didn’t mind giving either.

Puck’s eyes were locked on Kurt as he started to slide his leg against his, his brows furrowing slightly. Did Kurt really think that he needed to pay him back like that? “You don’t have to do that,” Puck said quietly, shaking his head, but his hands still moved to Kurt’s bare legs and rubbed them for a few moments. “I wasn’t, like.. expecting anything in return for helping out. Okay?” He really wanted Kurt to know that he didn’t need to do that, but.. well, he did look really good and it had been a few days. It’s not like Puck wouldn’t accept it.

His hands moved slowly along Kurt’s legs and up to his thighs, just barely brushing the bottom of his baggy t-shirt with his fingertips. 

Kurt’s eyes stayed locked on Puck’s as the older man insisted that he didn’t need to thank him. Even as he said that, his hands started to crawl up his leg and Kurt kept his gaze on him, his body leaning in closer. As Puck kept talking and his hand kept moving up his leg, Kurt’s heart started to speed up in anticipation. This was definitely what needed to be done; Kurt couldn’t believe he had waited this long.

“I know,” Kurt said, his voice just as quiet as Puck’s had been. He shivered slightly from the sexual tension of the moment and how Puck’s fingers ghosted over his skin as they went to the edge of his shirt. “I want this, too,” Kurt confirmed quietly. His eyes finally lowered and he looked at Puck’s fingers in their precarious position. Kurt grabbed that hand and held it where it was as he switched positions so he was on his knees next to Puck. “I need this,” Kurt whispered, leaning in close to Puck’s face.

Kurt gently kissed Puck’s lips and let go of his hold on Puck’s hand. He moved his own hand to the zip of Puck’s sweatshirt. “I need you to fuck me so hard I can’t remember my name,” Kurt whispered against his lips. He pulled back in order to look back in his eyes, “Can you do that for me?” Kurt didn’t want anything sweet or slow or comforting, not now. He wanted to be fucked into the floor; he wanted Puck to mark him up; he wanted it dirty and rough and hard, hard enough that he’d forget everything.

He leaned into the kiss, his hold on Kurt’s thigh tightening, nails digging into flesh as he murmured against his lips. Puck just nodded, his fingers grazing the bottom of Kurt’s underwear. This was definitely not what he was expecting at all. He wasn’t anticipating any sex in the first place, but if he had been, he would have assumed that Kurt would want something more slow and gentle considering the circumstances. But then again, Kurt was very unpredictable.

“Mm. I’ll take care of you,” he assured him with the slightest of smirks, looking into Kurt’s eyes to find an intensity he’d never seen before. His own eyes fluttered closed as Kurt started to unzip his sweater and kiss along his chest, puffing his chest out a bit in the process. A soft hum left his lips as Kurt licked and tugged at his nipple ring before moving up to his neck, both of his hands sliding under Kurt’s loose shirt and gripping onto his hips as he pulled him into his lap. As soon as he heard Kurt’s next words, he shivered, the sound of his name on Kurt’s lips affecting him more than he ever could have guessed. Then pulled Kurt’s shirt over his head in one fluid motion, tossing it over the back of the couch, and immediately attached his mouth to Kurt’s collarbone and not wasting any time in marking him up, the grip on the younger man’s hips getting increasingly tight.

“Fucking perfect,” he murmured against Kurt’s soft skin, making his way to his nipples and tugging at them with his teeth. If it was what Kurt really wanted, Puck had no problem taking him apart entirely, and he seemed pretty sincere. He slid a hand up to the back of Kurt’s neck and gripped hard, pulling him back slightly by his hair, and looked up at him through his eyelashes. He smirked and, after one last rough kiss on his already swollen lips, he started to move Kurt off of him, using the hold on his hair to push him onto his knees on the floor.

Everything had happened so fast that his body was a few seconds behind his brain, but his cock was still half hard in his shorts anyway. Puck lifted his hips to pull his shorts and briefs down just enough to pull his cock out, taking it in his hand and stroking himself slowly, raising a challenging eyebrow at Kurt.

“Yeah,” Kurt said softly looking down at his lap. It felt nice to talk about that, in a weird way. While he was worried about never hearing his dad singing to him again, it was nice to remember the good times at least. Kurt smiled slightly at the memories.

Once Puck said it was okay to shower, Kurt nodded and headed back to the bedroom. He carefully made the bed, since he felt a bit bad for not doing that before, and rested the little teddy bear back against the fluffed up pillows. Then Kurt got back into the shower. He hated the idea of showering again after showering so late that night and how much he had dried out his skin from that one, but he really could use something calming and nice. He didn’t heat the water up so much this time, just keeping it pleasantly warm as he used one of his more moisturizing body soaps and played some quiet music on his phone. He let himself focus on just the moment, breathing deep and slowly refreshing himself. 

Kurt got out after a few minutes and then brushed and blow-dried his hair. While he hadn’t remembered hairspray, he at least had that. Kurt started to feel more like himself and he rubbed on some more lotion and some facial moisturizers before getting into Puck’s T-shirt. He considered putting the pants back on, but he was feeling a bit warm from the shower. Plus the shirt combined with his underwear covered everything.

Kurt folded up the pants and put them on top of the laundry hamper in the bathroom. He figured he should go back to his place tonight or to Marley’s or something, since he didn’t want to wear out Puck’s welcome. That thought was sad, and he sighed before leaving the bathroom.

Soon after leaving Puck’s bedroom, Kurt heard a song and what sounded like Puck singing. Kurt paused as he recognized it, and he slowly walked into the living room. Not wanting to disturb Puck, Kurt stayed near the entryway and watched. Puck’s phone was in front of him and he had clearly just learned the song.

After a few moments, Puck looked up and re-started the chorus and sang “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”. Kurt blinked his eyes rapidly and slowly smiled, just a little. He couldn’t believe Puck had learned that just for him. When he finished, Kurt wanted to thank him or at least say something, but his throat was tight and he didn’t really know what to say. Then Puck just asked about the shower, and Kurt made a positive noise, still too moved to say anything. After a moment, Kurt managed to say, “Yeah, that’s a good idea…” As Puck walked past him to go to the shower, Kurt lightly grabbed his arm. 

“Thank you,” Kurt said softly. He wanted to elaborate, but with everything going on, he still couldn’t say anything, not anything that would say how he felt. So he let Puck go and looked back at the living room, his mind starting to race.

Kurt heard the shower go on in the distance and he looked down at his phone. There was still no news from the hospital, and he still had some time until he could visit his dad. Kurt sighed and sat back down on the couch, starting to feel a little antsy. He needed to get something to occupy his mind. But he couldn’t concentrate on his school work at all. He looked at the piano for a moment, but his eyes the landed on the guitar. He thought about how sweet Puck had been since he landed on his doorstep and how he needed a distraction…

The shower turned off and Kurt looked in his school bag. Thank god he had started to carry around certain supplies with him. He licked his lips and waited for Puck to come back out.

He crossed his legs and elegantly posed himself at one end of the couch as Puck came back. “Hey,” Kurt said, patting the spot next to him. Puck, thankfully, sat there, and Kurt angled his body, his long legs still on display, and said, “I wanted to say thank you for everything. I’m really glad you’ve let me stay and I appreciate everything you’ve done.”

Kurt gently pressed his crossed leg against Puck’s. “I’d like to show you just how thankful I am,” Kurt said, his voice a bit sultry as he looked at Puck through his eyelashes. 

Puck was surprised when he felt Kurt grabbing his arm, and he turned to look at him. Kurt was obviously touched, and while Puck knew he would like it, he didn’t think that it would affect him as much as it did. He just gave him a small smile in return and gave his arm a light squeeze. “You’re welcome,” he told him genuinely before heading off to the bathroom.

The shower didn’t last long, but it still felt amazing. He was trying his best to block out all of his thoughts, which were mostly about Rachel and work and the boy in his living room, and it was mostly successful until he stepped out of the hot shower and back into the cold bathroom. He sighed and dried his hair with a towel, then slipped into fresh briefs, gym shorts, and a zip-up hoodie. After brushing his teeth and stepping into his slippers, he padded back out to the living room.

It was hard not to notice how Kurt was sitting because his legs were practically hypnotizing, but when Kurt patted the couch next to him, Puck went over and sat down without much thought. He raised an eyebrow as Kurt started to thank him again, which seemed excessive, but he nodded, glad he was able to help. “Yeah, you’re welcome. I’m glad I could do something, even if it wasn’t much.” When it came down to it, it hadn’t been a lot, just a place to sleep and shower and some waffles, but Kurt obviously had needed some company, which Puck didn’t mind giving either.

Puck’s eyes were locked on Kurt as he started to slide his leg against his, his brows furrowing slightly. Did Kurt really think that he needed to pay him back like that? “You don’t have to do that,” Puck said quietly, shaking his head, but his hands still moved to Kurt’s bare legs and rubbed them for a few moments. “I wasn’t, like.. expecting anything in return for helping out. Okay?” He really wanted Kurt to know that he didn’t need to do that, but.. well, he did look really good and it had been a few days. It’s not like Puck wouldn’t accept it.

“As much as I love musicals and Gaga and pop, I think I have to agree. The Beatles are always a great choice,” Kurt said with a nod. He listened as Puck talked about his childhood, something Kurt still didn’t know too much about past his dad leaving and how he wasn’t a great student. “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a song by Pearl Jam,” Kurt admitted. “I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. But, yeah, I’ve heard some Zeppelin, mostly from him. It was nice hearing it again.”

When Puck started playing “Seasons of Love”, Kurt outright laughed. “I’ve never heard that on guitar,” Kurt said, sniffing a little as his tears had finally stopped. At the implication of his wife, Kurt frowned, not really wanting to think about her. It made him feel even lousier than he had before and it really wasn’t something he needed to think about at the moment. He sighed quietly and hugged the bear in closely again. “I found most musicals on my own,” Kurt said. “But my mom introduced me to Disney and Les Mis. I think I had that whole thing memorized by the time I was eight. I also definitely blasted it 24/7 when I was, like, twelve. My dad giving me an iHome stereo was a huge mistake,” Kurt said with a slight laugh.

Kurt couldn’t remember if Puck had ever mentioned writing his own music to him before, but, either way, he was really impressed. “That’s awesome that you could ever do that,” he said, “I don’t think I ever could. My friends write some…I’ve helped a bit here or there with chord progressions, but coming up with melodies and words aren’t really my thing.” 

Puck started to play Stevie Wonder and Kurt smiled. He remembered this song coming up on mix CDs his mom made. He’d sit in the backseat and sing along with his parents, his dad always charmingly slightly out of tune and his mom hitting a few wrong notes herself. It was always fun. He quietly sang as Puck played, strangely feeling better when the song ended.

“My dad used to sing one to me when I was really young. It was kind of his version of a lullaby. And when I outgrew that, he’d still sing it around the house…sometimes he’d sing it just to embarrass me,” Kurt said with a chuckle. There were definitely times when his dad had sung that when his friends were around or when he showed up at work, and Kurt would get really embarrassed and tell him to stop. “Normally just the chorus since it’s kind of a love song, I guess, but it’s a good one. ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’. I still listen to it sometimes for a pick-me-up.”

After a few moments, Kurt stood up and turned to Puck. “Do you mind if I take a shower – or, I don’t know, maybe a bath? Crying makes me feel all kinds of gross. And I need something relaxing to get that dumb book with dying people out of my head.”

“That’s a great one,” Puck said, smiling at Kurt’s story. It was sweet, but he couldn’t ignore the knot in his stomach as he thought about the situation Kurt’s dad was in right then. He hoped more than anything that he’d be okay. What would Kurt do if he wasn’t? He knew better than to ask, but he couldn’t help but think about it.

Puck nodded when Kurt stood up, setting his guitar down next to him. “Sure, yeah. Just let me know if you need anything,” he said and stood up himself, walking into the kitchen to get himself another cup of coffee. When he returned to the living room, he grabbed his guitar and sat down on the couch again, then pulled out his phone. He looked up the tabs for ‘You are the Sunshine of My Life” and busied himself with learning it. It really didn’t take long, as Puck already knew quite a few Stevie Wonder songs and there were some similarities, so he played through it a few times and sang along, not noticing right away when Kurt walked back into the room.

He looked up at him and smiled, starting over with the chorus and singing along with it. It really had been awhile since he’d played or sang in front of anyone, so it was kind of exciting, which was probably lame.  It just felt good more than anything else, because even though he was happy with his career, playing music was always where he felt the most comfortable and natural.

Kurt felt a bit bad for losing his temper over a stupid book and sheepishly shook his head when Puck teased him a little. “No, I would never do that with your book,” Kurt said, “I do much worse things to it.” Kurt smirked a little to show he was joking, but he wasn’t sure how teasing he actually sounded. The book was annoying enough, but having a death inserted when he was already stressed about his own paternal figure dying was too much. 

“Yes,” Kurt said in response to Puck’s question. He didn’t think it was such an odd request; his parents would often sing along to CDs and even some of their old vinyls when he was a kid, and he figured Puck loved music enough, too. Kurt pulled his legs up to his chest and hugged the teddy bear to his chest as Puck started to play, closing his eyes and letting the soothing tone of what sounded like an actual classical music piece play. After a little bit, Puck stopped suddenly and started to play something Kurt didn’t recognize. He slowly opened his eyes and looked over at Puck as he played. It was still weird to realize this was his math teacher. He never understood the supposed connection between music and the arts; it sure as hell never happened to him. How was Puck good at both?

“You sounded great,” Kurt said, slightly confused as to why Puck was acting like he was awful. There were a few notes that seemed possibly misplaced, but that was impressive, especially since it was from memory. He knew pianists were supposed to play from memory, but still. “I liked your song choices.”

Once Puck started to pluck out “Stairway to Heaven”, Kurt had to let out a small laugh. He remembered watching Wayne’s World with his dad – obviously it was one of his father’s choices, not his own – and the guitar store had the sign that said “No Stairway to Heaven”. It was one of his favorite parts, especially since his dad had played the song enough that he could understand the annoyance of that song. Kurt started crying without realizing it as Puck played, but he soon laughed through his tears as Puck switched over to “Telephone”.

“That’s fine,” Kurt said, wiping his eyes as he realized he had been crying. “My dad loves that song – not Gaga, obviously, the Led Zepplin. I think he wanted it to be the first dance at his wedding, but my mom vetoed it. They went with The Beatles - ‘Something’. That was their song.” He leaned the teddy bear against his knees and looked at it as he continued. “They played The Beatles a lot when I was growing up. Not as much as Mellencamp or Springsteen, but a lot. And Stevie Wonder – hence the tiger’s name. My dad…” Kurt paused for a moment to swallow a lump in his throat. “My dad would sing a lot of that to me.” Kurt wiped his eyes again and leaned his head against the back of the couch. “I think they would’ve called me ‘Aisha’ if I was a girl,” he said as lightly as he could manage.

Puck glanced up at Kurt quickly when he heard what sounded like crying, and sure enough he was, but quietly. He wasn’t sure what that was about, but then Kurt elaborated soon after, mentioning his father. He wouldn’t have played that if he’d had known that his dad loved it, but there was obviously no way he would have known that. He just nodded and listened closely as Kurt spoke, still playing some of his own original work as he sat there.

“He has good taste in music,” Puck noted, starting to play ‘Hey Jude.’ “Can’t go wrong with the Beatles. My dad was into heavier stuff, but him and my mom listened to the Beatles a lot when he was around. But it was lots of Pearl Jam and Zeppelin when I was younger.” He looked down at his fingers on the strings and paused for a moment before starting to play the intro to one of the most well known songs, ‘Seasons of Love.’ He’d always enjoyed covering piano music on the guitar. “You’d probably guess that I know a shit ton of show tunes, too.” He rolled his eyes lightly as he thought about his wife; she wasn’t really who he wanted to be thinking about right then, but she was always in the back of his mind, especially when he didn’t want her to be.

“Glad you like it,” Puck said before taking an unnecessarily large bite of his waffle. “I love breakfast food. I could eat it for like every meal, and sometimes I do. I’ve pretty much mastered it all.” He took another few bites before reaching for his coffee. “I don’t know. Those waffles you made me before were pretty amazing, so that’s a big compliment.”

He nodded as Kurt got up, not really thinking about it until he came back in with his phone. He hoped the hospital would call soon, with good news of course. But Puck had truly no idea if no news was good news or how long Kurt’s dad was going to be in the hospital. He’d never known of anyone actually being in a coma before, except for on TV and stuff, and they were in them for like, years sometimes. He wasn’t sure if that actually happened in real life.

Puck couldn’t help but glance down at Kurt’s phone when it vibrated and lit up, hoping it was something from the hospital. He was surprised to see the name Sam on it with some emojis, and quickly looked away, picking up a napkin and wiping his mouth. Sam? That couldn’t be Sam Evans, could it? Puck really thought that when he’d seen Kurt and Sam talking very closely after that one game that it wasn’t really, well.. what it pretty obviously was. But after seeing this, that pretty much confirmed it, right?

He reached for his coffee to busy himself as he thought about it. Part of him had always wondered if Sam might be gay, basically just because of the whole pretty boy thing and that unnaturally blonde hair. But at the same time, he just figured that he wasn’t. He was always chatting up girls in the halls and seemed pretty confident, so he hadn’t thought about it much. Were he and Kurt a thing? Puck was pretty sure Kurt would tell him if he was fooling around with someone else.

Puck realized he’d been quiet for quite awhile after Kurt’s question. “What? Oh, I— no, it’s cool. You can put it in the sink if you really want, I guess,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll take care of it when I’m done.” Puck cut his eggs up into pieces and ate all of them at once, saving the rest of his waffle for last.

He smiled a little as Kurt thanked him. “You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help even if it’s not much,” he said, still looking at his food as he cut his waffle up, wondering why Kurt hadn’t gone to Sam’s house last night instead of his.

Once he was finished eating, Puck got the dishes in the dishwasher and cleaned the waffle iron and the counter. After filling up his coffee mug, he gave Maya a treat and then started walking toward the living room. “I got some snacks and stuff for later if you want anything. It’s all in the kitchen, so help yourself,” he told Kurt as he sat down on the chair, his feet propped on the coffee table. He turned on the TV to the news and upped the volume from how low it had been the night before, occupying his mind. He figured Kurt would want to do homework or something and wouldn’t want Puck to entertain him.

Kurt raised his eyebrows when Puck took a while to answer his question. What was up with that? Did he regret having Kurt over now out of nowhere? Thankfully Puck answered after a few moments, but Kurt frowned. “Are you sure I can’t do anything?” he asked, feeling like he owed Puck something, though he knew Puck wasn’t going to take his help. Kurt frowned even more as Puck seemed to avoid looking at him, but he figured asking him about it wasn’t going to do any good. Maybe he was just imagining it anyways. After getting some more coffee, Kurt gave Puck a curious look before going out to the living room. 

Once he was on the couch, Kurt looked around him and sighed. He figured homework was of the utmost importance at the moment, but his heart definitely wasn’t in it. Still, he pulled out his dumb book and started reading again. When Puck came back in, Kurt nodded at his words and thanked him again, keeping the teddy bear on his lap. 

As Kurt kept reading, somehow managing to get through the unnecessary amount of descriptions Steinbeck wrote, he tried to focus on the book, as boring as it was to him. The only real intriguing thing about the book so far was that the two main guys seemed kind of gay, but that was probably just him. Eventually the whole family in the novel started to go to California.

While he finished the assigned reading, he figured he’d go ahead and keep reading since he knew he wouldn’t want to do any other reading later in the week. He rubbed at his temples and skimmed through the next few chapters, only to get to a passage where the grandfather died.

Kurt slammed the book to the ground and looked at his phone for the time. He still had several hours until he could see his dad. “God I hate this,” Kurt said, running his hands through his hair and looking down at his lap.

Puck raises an eyebrow and looked at him and then down at the book. “You better not do that to my math book,” he told him, a small smirk on his lips. He tilted his head as Kurt asked him if he’d play something. “Really?” He wasn’t sure why Kurt would care about his playing, figuring he was just really bored with his book and wanting to procrastinate. “Uh, yeah. Sure.” He stood up and walked over to the piano, stretching his fingers as he sat down at the bench, and traced his fingers over the keys before he started playing.

Even with Rachel’s intense musical background, Puck wasn’t great with a lot of names of composers and famous pieces, even though he could play a lot of their stuff, so he wasn’t really sure what he was playing when he started. Finally he stopped for a moment before switching to something much more contemporary and modern, something he’d written himself back in college. It wasn’t terribly complicated, but it was one of the first piano pieces he’d actually come up with on his own, and he was still proud of it a decade later.

Once he was finished, he got up and grabbed a guitar that was propped up in the corner and perched himself on an ottoman. “I’m a lot better at guitar,” he said a bit sheepishly. It had been a long ass time since he’d played music for anybody but Rachel, especially piano. He was more in his element with a guitar in his hands.

He slowly plucked away at the strings, playing through part of the iconic “Stairway to Heaven” before switching to something Kurt would probably appreciate more, a funky acoustic version of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone.”

“Really well, actually,” Puck said of his sleep, spraying the skillet for the eggs with some cooking spray. Honestly, it had been really nice to have someone in his bed with him, even in just the innocent way. Puck was fairly physically affectionate, and liked having the warmth of a body next to him as he slept, so despite the stress of the evening before, it was some of the best sleep he’d had in awhile.

Puck cracked a few eggs in the skillet and sprinkled some seasoning on them. “Butter and syrup it is,” he said, walking to the fridge and pulling both out. He set them on the counter along with some plates and silverware, his own stomach growling a bit as the smell of waffles filled the kitchen.

Seeing Kurt smile and hug the little bear made Puck’s heart clench in his chest. He was glad that he could do something to make Kurt happy, even if it was only temporary. “An ascot, right,” he said with a nod, smiling himself as he watched Kurt. “I’m glad you like it.” 

With that, he turned back to his eggs, picking up the skillet and sliding the eggs onto Kurt’s plate. “Stevie Wonder the tiger? Definitely macho,” he teased. “Don’t worry it can be our secret. I know we’re good at those.” He got another few cooking before taking the waffle off the iron and setting it on Kurt’s plate as well, then refilled the iron with more batter for himself. Soon enough his food was ready also and he sat down with his plate next to Kurt.

“How is it?” Puck asked, his knee bumping Kurt’s as he reached for the container of strawberries  and dumped some onto his waffle, followed by a good amount of syrup. “I was gonna do omelettes or something, but waffles are like.. the ultimate feel-good food.” He took a sip of his coffee before cutting into his food and starting to eat, trying to ignore how natural it felt to be sitting there and eating breakfast together.

“Good,” Kurt replied. It was actually really nice to know that Puck slept well. Part of him hoped he had something to do with it, but maybe Puck just generally slept well all the time. Kurt knew having someone in bed with him helped him rest up better than he would’ve alone, even if it wasn’t the most content sleep he had ever gotten.

“We all know that I’m the most macho person out there,” Kurt said dryly, lightly moving one of the arms of the bear to further illustrate the irony. He smirked a bit at Puck’s response that he’d keep it a secret and nodded. “We definitely do it better than anyone else I know,” Kurt agreed. 

As Puck continued to cook, Kurt looked at the bear, still surprised that Puck had gotten him something like that. It was just so sweet and sappy and cute. It felt nice to know that Puck really wanted him to feel better, even after everything he’d done. It was honestly the sort of thing he would’ve wished Sam would do back when he was hung up on him. Now Kurt definitely didn’t have any sort of wish or want or belief that he and Puck were anything more than a weirdly friendly teacher/student-with-benefits situation. It just felt nice to have someone he didn’t expect do something so simple and sweet. He was sure Marley at least would scrunch up some dollars to get him something from the hospital gift shop, and Mercedes would at least bring a card, but he didn’t expect it from Puck.

Kurt tried to stop himself from eating until Puck was done making his own food, but his stomach refused to let him do that. He went slowly, though, taking bites in between sips of coffee, not saying much as Puck finished up making his own breakfast. Soon enough Puck was sitting next to him and asking about the food. “It’s really good. Possibly better than my own,” Kurt admitted. He put on a bit more butter and syrup since he really wasn’t concerned at all with keeping a usual Cheerios diet at the moment. He’d probably regret it in a few days since, no matter what would happen, Kurt knew Coach Sylvester would make some sort of comment about his hips, but whatever. 

“They’re definitely up there with biscuits and gravy. And hash browns,” Kurt said thoughtfully. He couldn’t even remember the last time he made those. Between his own diet for the Cheerios and his attempts to keep his dad healthy, he rarely made anything like that anymore, despite loving both those foods.

And apparently avoiding those foods wasn’t enough.

Kurt put down his fork and knife at the thought, suddenly not too hungry. “I’ll be right back,” he said as he got out of his seat. Kurt made his way back to Puck’s room and ripped through his covers to find his phone. A sigh of relief fell out of his lips as he saw that he hadn’t missed any calls; the hospital had his number and said they’d call if anything happened. As he walked back to the kitchen, Kurt scrolled through the flurry of texts he got from Marley and Mercedes as well as a few other people he vaguely knew who seemed to have just gotten the news. 

“They said they’d call,” Kurt explained as he sat back down next to Puck. He figured Puck would know what he meant. Kurt put the phone on the counter and, after a moment, moved the bear to his lap. With one hand he squeezed it, and with another he ate the last bites of his waffle; he knew if he didn’t at least finish that part of breakfast he’d really regret it.

Once Kurt had finished the delicious waffle and forced down a few more bites of eggs, he asked Puck, “Should I put these in the dishwasher? Do you need help with clean up?” His phone vibrated and he quickly pressed the lock key to see what was on there, half-expecting a call or something important. Instead, there was a text from Sam asking again if he was doing okay. Of course, Sam’s contact name didn’t contain his full name, but said ‘Sam 👄🍑🍆’ because Kurt had never gotten around to changing it. He rolled his eyes and locked the screen again to hide the message, his phone still on the counter the whole time.

He nodded as Kurt got up, not really thinking about it until he came back in with his phone. He hoped the hospital would call soon, with good news of course. But Puck had truly no idea if no news was good news or how long Kurt’s dad was going to be in the hospital. He’d never known of anyone actually being in a coma before, except for on TV and stuff, and they were in them for like, years sometimes. He wasn’t sure if that actually happened in real life.

Puck couldn’t help but glance down at Kurt’s phone when it vibrated and lit up, hoping it was something from the hospital. He was surprised to see the name Sam on it with some emojis, and quickly looked away, picking up a napkin and wiping his mouth. Sam? That couldn’t be Sam Evans, could it? Puck really thought that when he’d seen Kurt and Sam talking very closely after that one game that it wasn’t really, well.. what it pretty obviously was. But after seeing this, that pretty much confirmed it, right?

He reached for his coffee to busy himself as he thought about it. Part of him had always wondered if Sam might be gay, basically just because of the whole pretty boy thing and that unnaturally blonde hair. But at the same time, he just figured that he wasn’t. He was always chatting up girls in the halls and seemed pretty confident, so he hadn’t thought about it much. Were he and Kurt a thing? Puck was pretty sure Kurt would tell him if he was fooling around with someone else.

Puck realized he’d been quiet for quite awhile after Kurt’s question. “What? Oh, I— no, it’s cool. You can put it in the sink if you really want, I guess,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll take care of it when I’m done.” Puck cut his eggs up into pieces and ate all of them at once, saving the rest of his waffle for last.

He smiled a little as Kurt thanked him. “You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help even if it’s not much,” he said, still looking at his food as he cut his waffle up, wondering why Kurt hadn’t gone to Sam’s house last night instead of his.

Kurt nodded when Puck answered what time it was. He was a bit surprised he had slept that long since he was so used to getting up early on weekdays. It was nice, though, even if he felt a little groggy still. As soon as Puck mentioned coffee, Kurt perked up. “Coffee?” Kurt asked hopefully, looking around for where it was. Then he noticed the waffles and eggs Puck mentioned, and he watched them cook with wide eyes, his mouth slightly open. “Wow…thank you,” Kurt said in genuine appreciation and shock. Yeah, he had made waffles for Puck the first time he spent the night, but he wasn’t expecting something so fancy, especially when he wasn’t making it himself. 

As soon as Puck pulled out another mug, Kurt quickly made his way over to his side and poured himself some coffee from the still-warm pot. He poured enough in that the mug was nearly spilling over. He took a careful sip as Puck asked him about his sleep. It was only then that Kurt really thought about how he had slept. While he had been so tired that he fell asleep easily, much like the night before, it wasn’t the most peaceful sleep of his life. “Yeah, it was fine,” Kurt answered simply, not really wanting to worry him anymore than he already had. “You?” Kurt looked back at him and raised his eyebrows at all the choices he was given. “Oh…well, I wish I could say I was interested in strawberries, but I’m really just here for butter and syrup,” Kurt admitted before another sip of coffee.

Kurt quickly downed the mug and then poured another one. He watched Puck curiously as he walked near him and over to a bag. Then Puck was pulling out a really cute, cheesy teddy bear and he handed it to him. “An ascot,” Kurt informed him, though not in a rude way. Kurt smiled softly and put down his mug before taking it from Puck. “Thank you,” he said as he looked it over, laughing ever so slightly. “I don’t think I’ve gotten a stuffed animal since I was like…eight. I love it.”

Kurt hugged the bear next to his chest with one arm and grabbed his coffee again with another. Honestly, if he wasn’t still a bit groggy, he’d probably be way too overwhelmed at that point. It was all so much, too much, and Kurt still felt like he didn’t deserve it. Puck wasn’t going to be persuaded that way, though, and Kurt knew it, so he just thanked him again before going over to the counter to sit. He put down his mug and then put the bear on the counter in front of him, looking it over. 

“I actually brought something similar to this,” Kurt admitted with slight embarrassment. “I just didn’t want you to…think I was immature or something. I normally don’t sleep with one, but…” Kurt trailed off, since he was sure Puck would understand that he needed extra comfort yesterday. “It’s a tiger, though. Named Stevie, after Stevie Wonder. Much more macho.” He had a sip of coffee and, after a thought, he added, “If you tell anyone that ever, I will deny it.”

“Really well, actually,” Puck said of his sleep, spraying the skillet for the eggs with some cooking spray. Honestly, it had been really nice to have someone in his bed with him, even in just the innocent way. Puck was fairly physically affectionate, and liked having the warmth of a body next to him as he slept, so despite the stress of the evening before, it was some of the best sleep he’d had in awhile.

Puck cracked a few eggs in the skillet and sprinkled some seasoning on them. “Butter and syrup it is,” he said, walking to the fridge and pulling both out. He set them on the counter along with some plates and silverware, his own stomach growling a bit as the smell of waffles filled the kitchen.

Seeing Kurt smile and hug the little bear made Puck’s heart clench in his chest. He was glad that he could do something to make Kurt happy, even if it was only temporary. “An ascot, right,” he said with a nod, smiling himself as he watched Kurt. “I’m glad you like it.” 

With that, he turned back to his eggs, picking up the skillet and sliding the eggs onto Kurt’s plate. “Stevie Wonder the tiger? Definitely macho,” he teased. “Don’t worry it can be our secret. I know we’re good at those.” He got another few cooking before taking the waffle off the iron and setting it on Kurt’s plate as well, then refilled the iron with more batter for himself. Soon enough his food was ready also and he sat down with his plate next to Kurt.

Puck raised an eyebrow when Kurt said that he’d been excused for the rest of the week. That was something that Puck definitely couldn’t relate to; if he’d ever been given the opportunity to take a few days off school for any reason, even during his final year when he finally got his shit together, he wouldn’t be able to pass that up. Even though he could see why Kurt wouldn’t want to fall behind, he was sure that the rest of his teachers would cut him some slack as he dealt with the family emergency.

He still didn’t say anything else, because he had a feeling that Kurt would fight anything he said, and he wasn’t awake enough for that yet. But then Kurt turned to look at him and asked him probably the last question he was expecting. He looked at him doubtfully, thinking he had to be kidding, but he was serious.

Puck thought for a moment, scratching at his forehead as he ran through his class schedule and lesson plans for the day. There actually really wasn’t anything too complicated; they were mostly just reviewing for midterms, which the kids could do themselves, or a substitute could easily lead them through. After another few moments of thought, he nodded. “Yeah. That should work. I need a day off anyway,” he said groggily and reached for his cell phone, holding a finger to his lips for Kurt to be quiet as he called the school. Nobody was there yet, so he left a short message, glad he hadn’t talked enough yet for the grogginess to leave his voice.

“Hey, Linda. It’s Noah Puckerman, about ten to six on Wednesday morning. I’m not feeling too good this morning so I’m gonna have to take a sick day and get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He hung up and slid his phone back onto the nightstand, then turned on his side to face Kurt. “I know you’ve got stuff to do, but I’m going back to sleep,” he said as he buried his face into his pillow. Then he blindly reached over to tug gently on Kurt’s arm, looking up at him with the one eye that wasn’t covered by pillow. “You probably should too. At least for a little.”

Kurt waited silently as Puck seemed to debate if he’d stay or not. Asking him so early in the morning – which seemed particularly early for Puck, given how out of it he looked – was probably a tad unfair, but he wasn’t going to stay in if he had to be alone yet again. Thankfully, Puck agreed and Kurt let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

“Thank you so much, really, I – ” Puck held a finger to his lips and Kurt quickly closed his mouth obediently. He moved to sit on his knees as he watched Puck call into work. In normal circumstances, Kurt probably would’ve been a bit intrigued since it was so weird to hear how someone called in sick for school; it definitely wasn’t something he had thought of before, how early teachers had to call in and what they’d say. He knew most places his friends worked at would require a doctor’s note or something to even got off work. 

Obviously he was really tired and out of it if he was a little interested in something like that.

He rubbed a hand over his forehead as Puck hung up and thanked him again. Once it sunk in that he had a day off, and not in a usual Kurt Hummel being a brat and just not showing up or something, he felt his whole body and mind relax in relief. Kurt hadn’t missed a full day since his dad called him out before Thanksgiving. He had cut a few classes for doctor’s appointments and Starbucks runs and, well, just for the hell of it, but now he had a full day of not worrying about any of that.

He had even forgotten about his school work for a moment until Puck brought that up. “Yeah…” Kurt said tiredly, the adrenaline from his alarms and his earlier frenzy fading now that he was sitting. He couldn’t stop a large yawn from taking over and he shook his head. Puck pulled him down before he could debate if he was going to continue his work or eat or anything else, which, honestly, he appreciated. Once he was laying back down, he knew he wasn’t going to get up again. “Okay,” Kurt agreed sleepily.

Somehow Kurt managed to grab his phone one more time to turn off his other alarms (he normally set half hour alarms every morning to make sure he had moved onto the next item on his to-do list). After a moment, he opened his texts again, and without reading what Marley and Mercedes had written that night in response, Kurt wrote, ‘I’m staying out of school today. Let me know what I miss in class and if you want to visit my dad later.’ He added a heart emoji and pressed send. Without another thought, Kurt threw his phone back to the edge of the bed and turned back to Puck. He snuggled up against him and fell back asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes.

Sometime later, Kurt woke up to sounds in the kitchen. He lifted his head up curiously; he was definitely more awake than earlier, but still a bit groggy from being asleep in the first place. It took him a moment to realize Puck was gone, which, duh, explained the sounds in the kitchen. Kurt slowly got out of bed and went to the bathroom. He did the bare amount of facial work he normally did in the mornings and then made his way to the kitchen, his hair still sticking out all over the place and his eyes slightly itchy from all the crying he had done the day before.

When he looked at the clock and saw that it was still fairly early, Puck carefully slipped out of bed without waking Kurt and did his usual morning routine of brushing his teeth and washing his face, especially since he’d missed doing that the night before since they’d passed out on the couch. Then he stepped into his slippers and padded into the kitchen, letting Maya outside and starting a pot of coffee. He got his newspaper off the front step and just sat at the island for awhile, which was refreshing. He only really got to do this on the weekend, but he didn’t even typically do it because he usually slept in way too late.

After he finished the newspaper, he got up and put on his coat, grabbing his keys and wallet. It was a quick trip to the store up the street, stocking up on a few things so he could make breakfast and lunch for them later, if Kurt stayed that long. He also got Kurt some cookies, because that always made him feel better, anyway, and some other snacks and drinks. As he made his way to the register, he saw a cute little teddy bear wearing an ascot and he paused. Would Kurt like that? He realized in that moment that he really didn’t know Kurt that well. Still, he put it in his basket and paid, then headed home to make breakfast, glad that Kurt was still asleep.

He started on some batter so they could have waffles and eggs, which was the ultimate stay home from school meal, at least to Puck. He remembered making them for himself when he was a kid and his mom actually let him stay home (without him pretending to go to school and then sneaking off), which was rare.

He turned when he heard noise behind him, offering Kurt a small smile as he walked in. “Hey,” he said quietly, enjoying Kurt’s just woken up look. “Like 9, I think. Maybe a little after.” He continued stirring his batter. “I made coffee if you want some. There’s cream and stuff in the fridge. Waffles and eggs on deck.” He gestured to the stove and the waffle maker that was preheating on the counter.

He got another mug out of the cabinet and set it next to the coffee pot for Kurt, then opened his waffle maker and poured in some batter. “Did you sleep okay?” he asked as he looked at him. “And what do you like on your waffles? I have strawberries, and butter and syrup. And chocolate chips, if you’re into that.”

Puck’s eyes immediately opened when he heard music start playing, but he slammed them shut just as fast, not wanting to be awake yet. He felt movement in the bed next to him, and heard mumbling as Kurt fussed with his phone, and turned to glance at the clock. 5:45? What the fuck?

He could barely get himself to move as he watched Kurt running around the room frantically, only half registering what he was saying. Puck stayed in bed as late as possible before leaving for work, even when he had stuff to do. He was relieved when Kurt finally sat down again, even though his body language was still screaming that he was stressed out. It was too early for that kind of stress.

Puck reached over and put a hand on Kurt’s back, just gently touching him. “Kurt. Just chill, okay?” he said, his voice thick with sleep. “Why don’t you just take the day off? You can stay here if you want.” He winced as he forced himself to sit up a little bit, propped up on his elbows as he looked at the younger man.

“You’re just gonna stress yourself out even more if you go. I don’t encourage playing hooky or whatever, but.. this is definitely reasonable.” He cleared his throat and reached to rub Kurt’s shoulder. 

No matter what Kurt did, he always got As at school. For some of his classes, primarily math, that meant he never really bothered doing the work, or he just half-assed it. Sometimes even in classes like English, something he actually enjoyed, he found himself taking some liberties, too. But he still liked to try to some degree, especially now that he was in so many AP courses. He wanted straight 5′s on his AP tests, or getting A’s in them would be useless. That meant he had to focus primarily on AP US, AP English, AP Bio, and AP Psych that morning. Since English was first, he’d have to read while he cooked; he could totally get through the next chapters by then, right? Psych was some reading with questions, and if all else failed he’d just do the homework during English. He’d have to look up biology and history, but most of those assignments weren’t too bad. Then again, midterms were coming up…maybe he’d skip out on French to help. He actually loved French, but he could miss a day of that, or even newspaper, despite that being one of his favorite classes as well.

His thoughts were interrupted as Puck put a hand on his back. Kurt fought off the want to incredulously repeat just chill back at him, because, come on, how was he supposed to chill in any part of this situation? He bit his tongue and shook his head, still not looking at him. 

“And then my homework’s going to pile up and stress me out more,” Kurt pointed out. As Puck rubbed his shoulder, though, Kurt could feel some of his resolve melt. Despite sleeping for a while, it had been fairly restless, and that combined with the day before meant he was a lot more tired than usual. He wanted so desperately to go back to bed, even if it was just for half an hour longer; that was about how much more he’d “sleep in” when his dad was out of town and he didn’t have to make him breakfast alongside his own. It never took that long to cook for him, but he’d try to catch him before work. Unlike his son, Burt was a natural morning person who normally left for work by 7, if not 6:45.

Well, if Kurt skipped school, which he was told he was allowed to do, he could go spend more time with his dad at the hospital. That was an idea. Kurt mulled it over, but, as ashamed as he was to admit it, he wasn’t sure he could handle spending even more time just watching his dad and hoping against all hope that he’d wake up. Watching his strong, powerful dad, the guy who used to seem invincible when Kurt was a child, lying in bed in a comatose state had done almost as much damage to Kurt’s anxiety than the heart attack itself. Feeling his lifeless hands, hearing the beeping of the monitors, watching nurses come in and out…it was all too much like when his mom was sick. Only this time, he was going through it alone. Kurt wanted to spend time with his dad while he could, but there was no way he could spend the whole day there.

“I mean…I guess I probably won’t be able to concentrate that much,” Kurt reasoned, “And it wouldn’t be hooky. Miss Pillsbury said I was excused for the rest of the week…” After a few more moments of Puck rubbing his shoulder, Kurt sighed. If he stayed at Puck’s place all alone, he’d just be thinking about his dad all day and feeling guilty about not being at the hospital. School, while he wouldn’t be able to concentrate, would provide some distraction. Seeing his friends would possibly help, too. But was it worth it when he wasn’t going to learn anything and when he didn’t have homework to turn in? And did he really need to damage the nice Stone Cold Bitch™ thing he had going on by crying all day? 

He still didn’t say anything else, because he had a feeling that Kurt would fight anything he said, and he wasn’t awake enough for that yet. But then Kurt turned to look at him and asked him probably the last question he was expecting. He looked at him doubtfully, thinking he had to be kidding, but he was serious.

Puck thought for a moment, scratching at his forehead as he ran through his class schedule and lesson plans for the day. There actually really wasn’t anything too complicated; they were mostly just reviewing for midterms, which the kids could do themselves, or a substitute could easily lead them through. After another few moments of thought, he nodded. “Yeah. That should work. I need a day off anyway,” he said groggily and reached for his cell phone, holding a finger to his lips for Kurt to be quiet as he called the school. Nobody was there yet, so he left a short message, glad he hadn’t talked enough yet for the grogginess to leave his voice.

“Hey, Linda. It’s Noah Puckerman, about ten to six on Wednesday morning. I’m not feeling too good this morning so I’m gonna have to take a sick day and get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

So I think it’s time to practice what I preach Exorcise the demons inside me Woah, gotta learn to let it go –

Kurt shot straight up in bed, untangled himself, and immediately reached over to grab his phone. Kesha kept singing, ‘The past can’t harm me if I don’t let it; live and learn and never forget it.’ He turned off his alarm and, still in a sleepy haze, started to get out of bed. 

“Did I get more egg whites?” he asked himself in a mumble. He rubbed his eyes hard and then opened them again. His tired mind finally started to catch up with him; his dad was in the hospital and he had spent the night at Puck’s house, hence the earlier untangling. At some point they had moved over to Puck’s bedroom, but he barely remembered it happening. “Oh,” Kurt said quietly as he sat back down on the edge of Puck’s bed. “I guess I don’t need to make breakfast for him…”

He rubbed his hands over his face and looked back at Puck. “Sorry for being loud,” Kurt whispered. “You can go back to sleep. I can make you something for breakfast.” After all, he owed him at least that much. “Eggs cool? I can put anything you want in there. Or I can do something else if you have any requests…” Remembering how he didn’t finish his homework last night, Kurt winced. “I do have a ton of homework to do, though, so eggs would be easier.” He looked over at the bathroom and added, “Or I can cut back on my facial cleansing routine – oh, god, do you have any hairspray? I don’t think I brought any.”

Kurt scrambled out of bed and was already halfway to Puck’s bathroom to check, but then his phone started to go off again with his back up alarm. This time Lady Gaga sang, ‘It wasn’t love, it wasn’t love; it was a perfect illusion (perfect illusion).’ Kurt groaned and ran back over to the side of the bed he left it on and turned off the alarm, slowly sinking back onto the bed. He had a lot of things to accomplish before school, but he didn’t have the energy for any of it. Kurt ran a hand through his hair as he tried to figure out how to organize the early part of his day now that he had homework to do as well. How long was it going to take?

Puck’s eyes immediately opened when he heard music start playing, but he slammed them shut just as fast, not wanting to be awake yet. He felt movement in the bed next to him, and heard mumbling as Kurt fussed with his phone, and turned to glance at the clock. 5:45? What the fuck?

He could barely get himself to move as he watched Kurt running around the room frantically, only half registering what he was saying. Puck stayed in bed as late as possible before leaving for work, even when he had stuff to do. He was relieved when Kurt finally sat down again, even though his body language was still screaming that he was stressed out. It was too early for that kind of stress.

Puck reached over and put a hand on Kurt’s back, just gently touching him. “Kurt. Just chill, okay?” he said, his voice thick with sleep. “Why don’t you just take the day off? You can stay here if you want.” He winced as he forced himself to sit up a little bit, propped up on his elbows as he looked at the younger man.

Kurt nodded at Puck’s words, not really wanting to say anything else at first. Then Puck said he actually wanted him there, and Kurt, for the first time since Miss Pillsbury came to his French class, smiled. It wasn’t a big one and it didn’t last for long, but it was genuine. “Thanks,” Kurt said. He knew Puck wasn’t just trying to be nice there, and, well, it obviously felt good to hear him say that. He may not have been completely forgiven, but Puck at least didn’t hate him or his company. While it didn’t solve everything Kurt was going through, it was good to know Puck didn’t hate him.

As Puck unfolded the blanket, he came in closer, and Kurt appreciated all the warmth enveloping him. It was enough to make his eyelids start to droop again, but he fought it off for a moment. He figured if he waited long enough, Puck would just leave and go to his bedroom and Kurt could curl up on the couch. His phone had an alarm set for every weekday around five forty-five, which was probably earlier than Puck got up, so he’d have plenty of time to hide his stuffed toy and cook and get ready for school, so it wasn’t really an issue. 

He looked up curiously at Puck until the older man corrected himself. Kurt nodded in agreement, leaning onto Puck’s shoulder. Kurt figured since Puck didn’t want him alone that he’d understand that he wanted and needed some form of comforting, physical contact and he wouldn’t freak out over it. “Me, too,” Kurt said sleepily. 

It was almost funny how at home he felt at Puck’s place. It was probably just the familiar touch and and smell of Puck surrounding him at the moment, but seeing as he only first came over a week and a half ago or so, it was strange. It was probably even stranger that Maya curling up next their feet made him feel even more at home, seeing as he never had a dog. “I like being here,” Kurt said, his eyes on the screen of Puck’s TV. “Your dog’s pretty cool.” 

Kurt’s eyes closed, and he told himself it would just be a minute. Of course, just a few moments later, he was fast asleep against Puck’s side. It had been a long day, after all.

As soon as Kurt leaned against him, Puck rested his head on top of his and let out a soft sigh. It felt really natural, them just sitting there together like that, and it was nice. Puck spent a lot of time hanging out on the couch with Maya, but this was a different type of relaxing that he really was enjoying, even with how tired he was.

He smiled when Kurt said that he he liked being there and liked Maya, but he didn’t say anything in response. Instead he turned to press a kiss to the top of Kurt’s head, nuzzling into his hair for a moment as his eyes closed, and before he knew it, he was asleep.

When Puck heard Maya walking around in the other room, he slowly blinked his eyes open, squinting from the light of the living room. He looked over at Kurt who was still asleep against his side, and then at the clock, realizing a few hours had passed and they were still sitting up on the couch. He thought for a moment before slipping an arm around Kurt and nudging him, waking him up. “C’mon,” he mumbled, helping Kurt off the couch. He grabbed both of their phones and took Kurt’s hand, leading him back towards the bedroom.

Puck nodded when Kurt confirmed that he really had deleted the pictures, swallowing hard as he looked back down at the bowl in front of him. Did he really believe him this time? He seemed genuine, more genuine before, and he didn’t seem like he could really lie about something like that in these circumstances. So Puck convinced himself to believe it. He needed to - for his own sanity.

Even though he’d felt pretty lame for admitting that he had been worried about Scandals, it was sort of comforting that Kurt could understand. “Yeah. It was just something to do.. socialize, I guess. Or pretend to.” Puck had never hooked up with any of the guys he met there, and had never done more than a little kissing and grinding, and even that had been incredibly rare. But it was still a nice change of pace from sitting at home with Maya every night. He also figured it was kind of fair, since Rachel had been in plenty of shows where she had to kiss people. Add up all the shows, plus all the practices, well.. it had evened out in Puck’s mind, although he had kind of blown that balance with everything he’d done with Kurt.

Puck glanced at Kurt’s bowl as he pushed it away and excused himself. “That’s a good idea. I bet they’re worried,” he said with a gentle nod. Kurt had really good friends, and Puck was still sort of confused as to why he chose to come to his house instead of one of theirs, but he didn’t question it. He just pulled Kurt’s bowl closer and watched him leave before finishing up his food as well as what Kurt had left.

Once he had he dishes cleaned up, Puck let Maya out and went back to his bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. The dog was back inside by the time he was done, so he locked the door and went back to the living room and sat down next to Kurt, trying to speak and act as casually as possible to avoid upsetting him.

“All good?” he asked, gesturing to the phone as he sat back against the couch and pulled the blanket over him.

“Yeah, they are,” Kurt agreed. He knew he probably should’ve gone to one of their houses instead of Puck’s since that would probably ease their worries, but he just couldn’t face them at the moment. The idea of having to tell them what was happening in person and having to deal with their own pain on top of his was more than he could bear. 

He knew they wouldn’t want to put pressure on him or upset him in anyway, but Kurt just knew that, being the type of person he was, he’d try to pretend he was doing better than he was, since he hated making them worried. It wasn’t like he wasn’t honest with them, he just couldn’t let them know just how awful he felt with something this bad. Not right away. His relationship with his father, while close and good and loving, was complicated, and he wasn’t sure they’d quite understand. Puck possibly could, if only because he had his own fucked up relationship with a loved one who was always gone. Also, of course, he had wanted to apologize, even though he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to make himself do it. It just felt like the right place to be, instead of having to see his friends and making the situation more real than it already was. 

That want to not make them worried made figuring out the wording of his text difficult. As much as he felt like he should reply to everyone who sent him a text, he just didn’t have the energy to think about that at the moment. He looked at the group chat he had with Marley and Mercedes, which was now filled with worried texts as well as the private texts he had with the both of them. Kurt figured he’d just send one text to the both of them, and if they were still up and asked him questions, he’d try to answer them. Key word being try.

By the time Puck got back, Kurt had finally written out what he considered the best possible message, at least for the moment. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t answered any texts or calls. My phone ran out of battery, since I didn’t charge it last night. My dad’s in a coma and they don’t know when he’ll wake up. I’m not even sure if that’s a certainty. Right now I’m safe and as good as I can be given this situation. Thank you for your messages and your concern, I really appreciate it. I love you guys a lot, but I don’t really want to talk about this at the moment. I’ll talk to you both later <3.’

When Puck asked him if it was good, Kurt nodded and sent the text. “As good as it can be,” he said as he wiped his eyes, which he hadn’t even realized had teared up just a little bit. He really thought he had cried everything out. After a moment, he quickly sent a text to Sebastian in a similar nature, but a bit shorter and without all the love stuff. 

Kurt opened the text from Sam, but ended up closing it after he saw the previous and recent conversations they had had, which mostly involved Sam trying to get Kurt to come over. He’d hear through the grapevine soon enough.

“It’s really not a big deal,” he insisted when Kurt said he could sleep on the couch, stretching his arms over his head. “If I didn’t want you here, I wouldn’t have let you in.” He paused for a second. “Well, that’s not true. I wouldn’t have like.. left you without anywhere to go. But I do want you here is my point.” He chuckled and rested his head against the back of the couch.

Puck waited for some kind of answer, really just assuming that Kurt would want to sleep. His answer surprised him though, and he smiled a little and nodded. “Yeah, of course,” he agreed, rubbing Kurt’s back again before they stood up, and Puck led him into the kitchen. He took the tupperware container out of the fridge and put some into two bowls, then put them in the microwave to heat them up, listening as Kurt continued on with his apology.

“Look. What you did was fucked up, yeah,” Puck said as he set a bowl and a fork in front of Kurt, then put his own bowl in the microwave. “And as a teacher, I was terrified. But as a former struggling student.. I guess I just got it.” He shrugged his shoulders and waited for the last few seconds to tick away on the microwave before taking his bowl and sitting at the counter across from Kurt.

“At first I thought you were gonna do it. But then when you didn’t right away.. I guess I just figured that if you really wanted to do it, you wouldn’t have waited. I did shit like that when I was your age. None of my teachers would go for it, though.” He smirked and rolled his eyes. “Well I got close once. But then she chickened out and turned me in.” The memory itself was pretty pathetic, but it made sense now why he didn’t react as badly to what Kurt had tried to do as most teachers would.

Puck took a bite of his mac and cheese, looking down at the bowl as he ate. “I appreciate your apology anyway,” he said, though he still wasn’t sure if he actually forgave him or not, even if the whole situation sort of opened Puck’s eyes a bit.

“It’s probably stupid, but I was mostly pissed about not being able to go to Scandals for awhile,” he said with a roll of his eyes and a quiet laugh. “That place is lame and I never even really did anything, but.. I don’t know. It was like, the only escape I ever got from my fucking life.” He knew that sounded really sad, but it was true.

He paused and took another few bites, poking at the noodles with his fork before slowly looking up at Kurt. “You really did delete those pictures, right?” Kurt had told him that he did, but there was still a small part of him that wasn’t sure if he believed it or not.

Kurt did his best to listen to Puck as he talked to him, but his stomach was still growling and he really needed to eat. He did his best to eat slowly, knowing it would help him feel full afterwards and also since he wanted to keep listening to Puck. He was glad to see that Puck was eating his food at least.

It was strange still to think of Puck as a struggling student, even though Puck had mentioned that part of his past so many times before. He still found it hard to believe that he ever did anything as bad as that, but Kurt didn’t comment. He wasn’t even sure what to say, so he just kept on eating as he watched and listened. When Puck said he appreciated the apology, Kurt nodded, well aware that Puck wasn’t saying he forgave him. Kurt was, thankfully, too emotionally distressed from the day he had to get upset over that; plus, as he said, he really hadn’t expected Puck to be ready to forgive him. 

Puck saying he missed the idea of Scandals made Kurt laugh quietly, but he kept on eating. It was really sad that Puck felt that way, though; Kurt really didn’t understand why he was keeping up this charade when neither of them seemed particularly happy. Rachel barely showed up; if she really enjoyed his company, you’d think she’d at least make some appearances.

Right as he was about to take a bite of his mac and cheese, Puck asked him if he deleted the pictures. Kurt’s eyebrows furrowed together, a bit surprised that this was coming up today of all days, even if he had brought it up. “Yeah,” he said. “I didn’t want that on my conscience anymore. I knew that I had fucked up royally, but it took me a while to go through with deleting it.” Kurt had wondered if he would’ve deleted the pictures if he and Puck hadn’t struck up a new deal. He wasn’t sure if he would’ve deleted them right away, though he still didn’t think he’d ever actually send the pictures to Rachel’s website.

Kurt took the bite of mac and cheese that was hanging off his fork and chewed it slowly before swallowing it. “I understand, though. How Scandals is an escape. As lame as it is. Which is pretty lame.” Kurt almost laughed as he thought about how lame it was, but instead he took another bite of mac and cheese. “It’s better than being alone…and it’s nice not being someone’s second choice.”

He continued eating and thought about what he had told his dad that morning. There was still a part of him, a very small part, that really thought he had a point. If there hadn’t been a tragedy that day, Kurt would’ve insisted he was right. But the fact that he hadn’t moved his tutoring session with Puck in order to hang out with his dad just made things worse. He’d give up ever seeing the sing-along Sound of Music in any theater if it meant his dad would be okay.

Kurt pushed his mostly eaten bowl away from him; he really wasn’t hungry anymore. He ran his hands through his hair as he remembered his phone and all those text messages. “I should text people,” Kurt said slowly. “…At least Marley and Mercedes. To let them know I’m okay.” After a moment he added, “Well, relatively okay.” He winced and brought his palms to his forehead. “I just couldn’t see their faces. Not right now. They’d…god, it’d be too real.” He took a few deep breaths as he tried to erase his imaginings of their faces and responses in his head.

Even though he’d felt pretty lame for admitting that he had been worried about Scandals, it was sort of comforting that Kurt could understand. “Yeah. It was just something to do.. socialize, I guess. Or pretend to.” Puck had never hooked up with any of the guys he met there, and had never done more than a little kissing and grinding, and even that had been incredibly rare. But it was still a nice change of pace from sitting at home with Maya every night. He also figured it was kind of fair, since Rachel had been in plenty of shows where she had to kiss people. Add up all the shows, plus all the practices, well.. it had evened out in Puck’s mind, although he had kind of blown that balance with everything he’d done with Kurt.

Puck glanced at Kurt’s bowl as he pushed it away and excused himself. “That’s a good idea. I bet they’re worried,” he said with a gentle nod. Kurt had really good friends, and Puck was still sort of confused as to why he chose to come to his house instead of one of theirs, but he didn’t question it. He just pulled Kurt’s bowl closer and watched him leave before finishing up his food as well as what Kurt had left.

Once he had he dishes cleaned up, Puck let Maya out and went back to his bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. The dog was back inside by the time he was done, so he locked the door and went back to the living room and sat down next to Kurt, trying to speak and act as casually as possible to avoid upsetting him.

Even though Kurt was stressed out of his mind and exhausted and unsure about everything, he could tell he was sounding crazy. His thoughts weren’t connecting at all and he was crying and shaking and he had to look completely insane to Puck. He couldn’t think about that when he started sobbing, though, since all he really cared about then was, well, hopefully getting Puck’s forgiveness on some level, but, mostly his dad. The idea of possibly losing him had been running nearly constantly through his head throughout the day, and it was something he had tried to ignore with books and homework and even just spending time with Puck, but now he couldn’t escape it.

He didn’t even really know what to expect when he through himself at Puck. Would he reject him? Would he feel awkward to have a messy, sobbing mess on his chest? Would he remember what all Kurt had done and be angry all over again? Thankfully Puck did none of those things; he just wrapped his arms around him and pulled him in tight, which was what Kurt needed more than anything, even though it made him cry even harder. He just had been needing that all day, needing someone to hold him, if only for a moment. It made him feel like things were actually going to be okay, which was something he hadn’t felt at all throughout the day. He vaguely heard Puck saying something, but he didn’t really register any of it as he just cried, every emotion he’d been feeling all day coming out of him.

Eventually he started to calm down, at least enough to hear Puck. As Puck said he wasn’t a bad person, Kurt shook his head and probably would’ve cried even more if he had the ability to do that. The fact that Puck of all people said he wasn’t a bad person didn’t make any sense, not after everything he had done to him. He was just too tired to even think of crying more.

His tears stopped and Kurt blinked up at Puck as he pulled away. He felt so gross from crying so much, just like his face was all messy or something. Kurt looked up at Puck as he wiped at his face with a tissue. “Okay,” Kurt said quietly, not really sure what else to say after everything he had just monologued. He grabbed some tissues himself and wiped his eyes and nose rather harshly. He clenched the tissues in his hand; he knew there was a trash can near by, but he wasn’t completely sure. At the suggestion that he could go to bed, Kurt shook his head. He was exhausted, but after crying like that, he couldn’t imagine he’d be able to fall asleep, at least not peacefully. Kurt also didn’t want to make Puck listen when he was probably tired himself.

After a few moments of silence, Kurt quietly asked, “Actually…can I have some more of that pasta?” He sniffed and almost laughed at his question. “I just…I don’t want to eat, but I’m still so hungry…”

He followed Puck into the kitchen and sat down at the counter, Maya pressing against the side of his leg. As Puck started to heat up everything, Kurt softly said, “I really am sorry.” He looked down at his clenched hands on the counter, unable to look at Puck’s reaction. “I…I really don’t think I would’ve done it. But that’s really not excusable, either. I’m really sorry. And you don’t have to say anything. I know I haven’t…like, earned forgiveness or anything. I just wanted you to know.” Soon the food was in front of him and he couldn’t speak anymore. He was way too hungry to ignore the food in favor of talking.

Puck waited for some kind of answer, really just assuming that Kurt would want to sleep. His answer surprised him though, and he smiled a little and nodded. “Yeah, of course,” he agreed, rubbing Kurt’s back again before they stood up, and Puck led him into the kitchen. He took the tupperware container out of the fridge and put some into two bowls, then put them in the microwave to heat them up, listening as Kurt continued on with his apology.

“Look. What you did was fucked up, yeah,” Puck said as he set a bowl and a fork in front of Kurt, then put his own bowl in the microwave. “And as a teacher, I was terrified. But as a former struggling student.. I guess I just got it.” He shrugged his shoulders and waited for the last few seconds to tick away on the microwave before taking his bowl and sitting at the counter across from Kurt.

“At first I thought you were gonna do it. But then when you didn’t right away.. I guess I just figured that if you really wanted to do it, you wouldn’t have waited. I did shit like that when I was your age. None of my teachers would go for it, though.” He smirked and rolled his eyes. “Well I got close once. But then she chickened out and turned me in.” The memory itself was pretty pathetic, but it made sense now why he didn’t react as badly to what Kurt had tried to do as most teachers would.

Puck took a bite of his mac and cheese, looking down at the bowl as he ate. “I appreciate your apology anyway,” he said, though he still wasn’t sure if he actually forgave him or not, even if the whole situation sort of opened Puck’s eyes a bit.

“It’s probably stupid, but I was mostly pissed about not being able to go to Scandals for awhile,” he said with a roll of his eyes and a quiet laugh. “That place is lame and I never even really did anything, but.. I don’t know. It was like, the only escape I ever got from my fucking life.” He knew that sounded really sad, but it was true.