Author's Note: What can say I say except I'm sorry for the wait? One day I'll learn to never post a story without finishing it first; that way I won't take a year to finish it... Anyway I hope this chapter makes anyone who is still reading this story happy! I had a lot of fun writing it.

You Are What You Is

Chapter 12: Big Gay Confrontation

"Hey puck, wait up." Finn called after Puck for the tenth time trying to catch up to him in the hall.

"In case you haven't noticed Hudson," Puck said when Finn was finally close enough to hear. "I'm ignoring you."

Finn jogged till he was side by side with the other boy. "Fine then I'll just walk to glee practice with you."

Puck shrugged, fully intending on ignoring Finn the entire way there. Starting the day by having that little chat with Hummel wasn't helping his mood. He felt almost like he just broke up with the kid. But no, he reminded himself, there hadn't been anything between the two of them. If there was it was just a lapse of judgment on his part.

"Dude, just stop for a minute." Finn placed a hand on Puck's shoulder, apparently abandoning his previous plan.

Puck shrugged quickly away from the touch, but it did make him stop and turn toward Finn. "I'm really not in the mood Finn."

"C'mon Puckerman. We use to be best friends, remember?"

Puck sighed. "Don't remind me."

"I wanted to apologize." Finn blurted out, "So just hear me out, alright?" Finn paused long enough to see if Puck would interrupt him. "I shouldn't have reacted like I did the other day. I shouldn't have said... y'know..."

Finn trailed off and Puck stared him down. He resisted the urge to tell his Finn to fuck off. He reminded himself that being friends with Finn again could help get things back to normal. "It's cool man," Puck began with a shrug. "I get it. Just stop to think next time before you open that big dumb mouth of yours."

Finn laughed awkwardly but seemed relieved. "I was just surprised. I still don't understand what's going on between you two."

Puck was immediately annoyed again, but decided to ignore Finn's obvious fishing. "I'm sorry I hit you."

Finn shrugged. "I probably deserved it."

"You did." Puck said with out any hesitation. After a moment of Finn looking ridiculously disappointed, Puck nodded his head down the hallway. "We're going to be late for glee."

When they walked into the choir room Puck noticed that the only person yet to arrive was Shue. There was a bit of a fuss being made as people crowded around Kurt, who was sitting in a chair towards the far end of the choir room. Kurt was struggling to get a word in as people asked him too many questions for him to answer.

Puck saw how uncomfortable Kurt looked, trying to explain what happened to all of their friends. Their eyes locked as Finn moved past Puck to join the rest of the group. In Kurt's eyes was a silent plea for help. Puck gave a slight shake of his head breaking their gaze and hung back from the crowd of Gleeks, leaning against the piano.

"Really, there isn't anything to worry about." Kurt was saying trying to regain control of the situation. "I may be a little worse for wear, but with Karofsky expelled everything should go back to normal."

"This is a hate crime." Rachel exclaimed.

"She's right," Tina spoke up, "You should press charges Kurt."

"Why didn't you tell us that things got this bad?" Artie asked, "We could have done something to help." There was a general murmur of agreement.

Mercedes spoke then, "You're my boy Kurt, I would do anything to protect you."

"Everyone to your seats." Mr. Shue said as he suddenly walked into the room and set his briefcase on top of the piano. "You too Puck." He added quietly to Puck who rolled his eyes and made his way to an empty seat behind Sam.

"By now all of you would have heard that David Karofsky has been expelled." There was an outbreak of mumbling from the teens, but Mr. Shue continued over them. "I know that you all have a lot of questions but what we need to be focused on is practicing."

Kurt attempted to show his eternal gratefulness to his teacher in a quick glance.

Mr. Shue paused to let his words sink in and the talking to stop completely before continuing. "We mostly have dance moves to work through, and Mike I was hoping you and Brittany could work together to come up with a great routine for sectionals. And Rachel, we need to work on-"

"William." Sue Sylvester was suddenly in the doorway. Everyone in the room turned toward her surprised. "I need to see you and Noah Puckerman in my office please."

Shue said something about practicing the Journey song which was met by some objection before motioning for Puck to follow him. Puck thought for a moment about how good a job he was doing at starting the week off right before standing up and following his teacher and Sue out of the office.

"This is garbage!" When Puck entered the office he expected this entire thing to be about Karofsky and Kurt, the last thing he expected was for his probation officer to be waiting in the office for him. "I've been doing my community service."

"When you wrote hanging with a crip on your probation application we thought you we're doing out reach for a local gang." The lady was leaning up against the bookshelf to Puck's right.

"No," Puck started trying to stay calm though he was getting increasingly frustrated. "I was going to help this cripple, but instead I've been helping this queer kid and it totally worked!"

"Puckerman." Coach Sylvester warned.

"Seriously. If it wasn't for me Karofsky never would have gotten expelled. You can't say that isn't a great service to the community!" And Puck really wasn't sure why everyone was looking at him like he was an idiot child but it really pissed him off. "Please Mr. Shue, you gotta help me out here."

"Ms. Marten, there's got to be some way Puck can make up for this. He's been a model student since he got back."

Ms. Marten looked Puck up and down critically before answering. "Five whole days. Impressive." She seemed to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. "Look, there are rules. If Mr. Puckerman doesn't find a suitable alternative for his community service, by tomorrow, his probation will be revoked and he'll have to go back to the Mondale school for boys."

"Oh screw that," Puck hit the table hard with his hands. "I am not going back there!"

"Puckerman you're going to have to calm down." Sue said sounding reasonable. Who was she to sound reasonable when everyone knew she was completely insane?

"No you calm down!" Puck yelled staring right at her. "All of you calm down! I told you I'm not going back there!" He looked at them all, and when he laid eyes on his probation officer he saw that she was writing away in a file. And where did that file even come from? "What the hell are you writing?" He stood and threw the file to the left. It was satisfying to hear the sound it made as the papers settled to the ground.

"Puck!" Mr. Shue was standing up. "This isn't helping."

And Puck felt done. He didn't know how many times in the last few days he had felt this way, but all he knew is that he was done. Stick a fork in Noah Puckerman, because he is probably starting to burn. " Why does anyone think they can help me?" He asked, "None of you care about me." He knocked a few things off of the principle's desk. Sue just sat there not looking scared or angry or surprised at all. It pissed him off even more. "All of you can go to hell."

Puck ran out of the office then, hearing Mr. Shue trying to make up excuses for him before the sound of his footsteps on the hard floor of the deserted hallway drowned him out.

Kurt's heart had nearly stopped when Coach Sylvester had called Puck to her office. He kept telling himself he didn't care. Puck's obvious choice to dismiss him, and the feelings they both felt, was enough of a reason to stop giving a flying drag queen's ass, right?

He had watched as Puck stood up and swaggered his way out of the room. In an air of I'm too cool to be here anyway. Before Mercedes or anyone could notice Kurt staring at the seat Puck was in seconds before, he moved his glance to Rachel as she stood and made a small speech about directing the group in Mr. Shue's absence.

"No way am I sticking around here while crazy white girl teaches us how to be better background vocalists." Mercedes said standing up and swinging her purse over her shoulder. "I have a history paper to write."

Kurt carefully hid a laugh with a cough at Rachel's horrified face as a few other Glee members mumbled agreement.

"Guys! You heard Mr. Shue, we need to keep focusing on practice." She used her matter-of-fact tone, crossing her arms over her chest.

Finn was standing up with the rest of the Gleeks now. "Sorry Rachel; Monday night football." That was really the only explanation Finn thought he needed. "Coming Kurt?"

For a moment Kurt hesitated, and he watched as Rachel stormed out of the room ranting about ungratefulness. "Actually I'm going to meet up with Britt at the mall. A much preferable pass time to watching football with you and my dad."

Finn shrugged and stalked off, behind his back Kurt breathed a sigh of relief that Finn bought his obvious lie. Either Finn was really that dense or he was trying to avoid an argument now that he was just barely back in Kurt's good graces.

After waiting a few minutes to ensure the parking lot was practically empty, Kurt found himself walking towards Puck's truck. Again, he told himself he didn't care ignoring that his actions pretty much revealed that for what it was; a lie.

It was only a moment after Kurt leaned against the truck that he saw Puck rushing out of the building.

A pone seeing Kurt, Puck stopped briefly. He took a deep breath calming some of the storm that was inside of him, before putting his hands in his pockets and walking the rest of the short distance.

"Are we going to do this again?" He asked leaning up against the car right next to Kurt, inches between their shoulders.

Kurt swallowed, but didn't look at Puck. "Do what?"

Puck was puling a cigarette out of his pack, grateful that Kurt wasn't looking to see his shaking fingers. "Have another Big Gay Confrontation."

Kurt almost laughed. "Is that what you call these?"

Puck only shrugged and with hands still shaking, tried unsuccessfully a few times to light his cigarette. Kurt sighed and turned gracefully towards him, placing his hands around the lighter to protect the flame. Once it was lit, Kurt moved away. Their fingers didn't even graze each other.

"Did you get in trouble because of me?" Kurt asked resting back against the driver side door.

"If I don't go pick up trash on the highway like Lima Scum then their sending me back to juvie."

"Oh." Kurt said, and was surprised that it was only now dawning on him that Puck following him around wasn't actually community service. He mentally kicked himself for being so dumb. "I guess we should have seen this coming."

"I'm skipping town." Puck spoke with conviction and all the confidence in the world. "I can't go back to that hell hole."

Kurt blinked. "I thought you loved it there? I thought you kicked everyone's ass?"

"I lied." He spat, smoke rolling off his tongue. "I got my ass handed to me on the first day when some dude ripped out my nipple ring. I'm a badass for sure, but those kids?" He shook his head, and in the most defeated tone Kurt had ever heard Puck added, "Plus they kept taking my waffles."

"Then do the garbage pick up."

Puck growled. "No way!"

"How are you going to live? On the streets? How do you plan on making money?"

Puck took one last drag of his cigarette, "The same way I always have." He threw the butt as far as he could.

Kurt's felt kind of sick. "Don't go."

"Give me one good reason."

He pushed himself from the car throwing up his hands, but Puck kept his eyes locked on the ground. "There are people here who care about you Puck! Mr. Shue is doing everything he can to help you, and Glee club needs you even if your talents are mediocre. Not to mention your little sister will wonder where her big brother went! And... because..." He slowed down getting embarrassed by what he was about to say. "Because I can't go with you."

Puck finally looked up, staring straight at him with eyes that knew too much-not only about Kurt but about pain and rejection. Kurt's voice was softer when he spoke next. "Noah, you were prepared to spend two entire weeks with me; I think picking up trash is the lesser of two evils."

"So, it's that easy? Big Gay Confrontation fixes everything." He knew everything that Kurt was saying was true, but he wasn't willing to give up yet.

Kurt crossed his arms stubbornly; Noah had officially ruined the ending to his impromptu speech. "Don't be a dickhead just because I'm the only one in the parking lot making any sense! And don't do this to Mr. Shue; he's risked a lot by taking you in. And eventually you will get caught and they'll arrest you, or put you into the system. And-"

"For fuck's sake Kurt!" Puck yelled throwing his hands into the air. "I get it. I'd be ten different kinds of stupid if I took off. Just stop with the lecture."

Kurt didn't do a very good job at hiding his smugness. "So you'll stay?"

"I just said that didn't I?" Puck snapped.

"You can stop being so angry at me all the time." Kurt said rolling his eyes. "Why are you always pushing me away?"

Puck took a deep breath, annoyed at how easily Kurt could read him. Kurt Hummel who he use to throw in dumpsters, who he threw pee balloons at, who sounds more like a chick then a dude and dresses like a circus freak. He tried to tell himself again that there was nothing between them. Instead, he found himself answering Kurt's question.

"Because you're the first person who noticed me," He realized he knew the answer all along. "and I hate you for that." There was still anger in his voice, but it was more self-deprecating than anything else.

Kurt's expression softened as he felt a change in the tone of the conversation. He was suddenly aware that Puck was closer than before. He wondered briefly if it was himself that had started to close the distance or if it was Noah. Pulling his thoughts together he answered the other boy's honesty with some of his own.

"I hate you too." Kurt stood completely still as Puck shuffled forward, stopping when his knock-off rebox touched the tip of Kurt's black and white oxfords. "But I'll get over it."

That morning, Puck had been convinced that he and Kurt would be better off with out each other. Mostly because Puck knew he was a destructive force and he didn't want to take Kurt down with him. Partly because, in all honesty, Kurt was really good at pissing him off.

But when Noah Pukerman had woken up with Kurt Hummel in his arms that had stomped on any chance of them being rid of each other. It just took him this long to realize it.

In the middle of a nearly empty parking lot outside of a high school in the shit town of Lima Ohio, Puck ever so carefully pulled Kurt as close as he dared, and kissed him.