Title: there is a way to keep yourself from becoming your father

Fandom: Charmed/Glee

Disclaimer: not my characters; title from James Humphrey

Warnings: spoilers for Glee's season 2 finale; AU

Pairings: mentions of Cole Turner/Phoebe Halliwell

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 640

Point of view: third

Prompt:

Puck wanted to put something else on his shirt, but he couldn't. He knew he was adopted and he knew what he was, but something in his gut was keeping him from putting "HALLIWELL" on that shirt.

Gen, slash, or het are fine. For ships, I'm fine with Puck getting paired with (in no particular order) Finn, Kurt, Quinn, or Rachel.

Puck had always known what he was. He dreamt about the life he could've had, the life that was stolen when a demon tore him from his mother's womb and cast him adrift in time.

He only survived because of magic. Ruth Puckerman found him; her own newborn had died suddenly and her husband was barely around, and no one noticed the difference.

Had he stayed with his mother and her sisters, he would've been named Peter. Ruth gave him the name her son had had: Noah. Thankfully, the demon that stole him also bound his powers or things could have gone very badly. As it was, for a long time he thought he was crazy. The things he dreamt were insane, and his mother told him magic didn't exist, and there were no other witches or demons in Lima, Ohio.

By his junior year, though, the binding wore off. He remembered everything, and he knew more. He knew that magic didn't just exist, but that he had more than anyone rightfully should. So he faked a visit to juvie and left town, going somewhere where no one was so that he could practice. Learn control, learn his limits. He even thought about contacting his blood family, but… well. He remembered everything. They didn't want him. Nobody wanted him because he was a monster. A jackass and a bully and pure evil incarnate.

He could levitate. He'd always been able to tell what people felt; he'd just shut it off and ignored it so that he could shove people around. He could do some kind of teleportation thing now. He could create fire, which was fairly awesome, and see hazy visions of the future, which wasn't. Because his future, at the moment, ended in demons showing up and claiming their prince, and putting him on a throne as their figure-head bitch-boy.

Puck returned to school. He shoved all his powers down tight and tried not to lose his temper, and pretended that he was a badass, when he was actually terrified all the time. He let himself get caught up in teenage drama, hoping that would help, but his premonitions kept getting darker and bloodier, and he wished so much that he was just Noah Puckerman. A normal kid. A bully and a jackass and a Lima loser.

But he wasn't. He would've been Peter Halliwell, son of the Source of All Evil and a Charmed One. And now that his powers were all back online, demons knew he was alive.

When Kurt came back and they were all about to perform Born This Way, Puck tried to think of something to put on his shirt. He thought about Halliwell or demon or, his favorite, Source's Son, but instead chose with stupidand an arrow to his crotch. It was expected, it was easy, and no one would think twice.

He decided to leave town after Nationals. Maybe he'd get lost in New York, where there were so many witches and demons nobody would notice him. Ruth could focus on Sarah and no one would miss him.

So while everyone else clung to each other in the girls' hotel room, Puck grabbed a knapsack and walked down the stairs. Once he was alone on the landing three floors down, he leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and slowly, link by link, undid the chain he'd wrapped around his powers. They'd grown in the months since he practiced. He was at least twice as strong now. It was good that he was leaving. Demons wouldn't be able to ignore him now, and if he wasn't around people he cared for, he could fight back to his full extent.

Maybe he'd go back someday. Maybe he wouldn't. He glanced back up the stairs, shouldered his bag, and continued on down.