Scales and Notes

By: RavenHeart101

Disclaimer: I own nothing. The songs belong to The Wanted, Ray Charles, The CCR, and Avril Lavgine.

Summary: The three times Puck caught Blaine playing piano and the one time Blaine caught Puck playing guitar. In no particular order.

Okay Prompt: Puck catches Blaine playing the piano. And then Blaine catches Puck playing the guitar

It's Blaine's first ever real job. It's not the best job in the world, but really, what first job is? It's not horrible. He figures that if he can deal with his mother's campaign and his father's criticism and Cooper's Hollywood personality he can work perfectly fine at a book store. And he does do perfectly fine. There's nothing hard about the job.

His favorite shift to work is at night, though. When he works with Jeff and the two of them fool around until midnight when they have to close up the shop and there are no customers. Or those nights when it's him and Millie, the old woman who works in the Starbucks section. When it's just them she always asks him to play some tune on the piano in the back as she cleans up her station.

Today was one of those days.

He sat down on the piano bench, smiling at Millie as she milled around her station, the woman already humming along to the nothing that he was playing.

It was only ten, and it was always possible that some late comer would wander in, but it was very unlikely.

"Georgia On My Mind, dear." She winked at him, and he smiled at her. It was a routine with them, this song. It was Millie's favorite Ray Charles song and she was convinced that Blaine did it just as good, if not better, than him, although Blaine would surly argue that she was going senile because no one would beat Ray Charles at anything.

"Are you going to sing with me, Mill?" He asked softly, fingers playing out the soft introduction music. Her eyes wrinkled at him and, in that moment, she reminded him so fiercely of David's grandmother that it pained his heart. He remembered Mrs. Thompson's funeral.

"Softly, dear." Blaine nodded at her, assuring her that it was fine. "You're voice is so much prettier than mine."

He hid a blush, restarting the introduction and starting to sing with a tone that people so rarely heard him in. "Georgia, Georgia. The whole day through (the whole day through). Just an old sweet song... Keeps Georgia on my mind." He heard her elderly voice staying strong as she sang along, swiping at her station with a soft smile on her face.

The bell above the door dinged but Blaine didn't bother paying it any mind. He would play this one song for Millie and then ring them up. They could wait three minutes. "Other arms reach out to me. Other eyes smile tenderly. Still in peaceful dreams I see. The road leads back to you." Millie sighed softly, as did someone else, but Blaine didn't feel the need to pay them any mind.

He opened his mouth to sing the next line, jumping when a voice – a familiar voice – came instead of his own. "I said Georgia, oh Georgia. No peace I find (peace I find). Just an old sweet song. Keeps Georgia on my mind." Blaine couldn't help the heated smile that came over his face when his eyes landed on Puck, the older boy standing in front of the piano, leaning against the shining black surface with a large smile on his face, his eyes trained on Blaine as though he was the only thing in the world he could see.

His voice was as wonderful as Blaine remembered it to be. They had been skyping, texting, even calling one another every once in a while – not as much as Blaine talked to Mike or Santana but still a good amount. He felt ridiculously happy to see the mohawked boy – who didn't actually have a mohawk anymore – once again. And it seemed as though California had been good for Puck.

"Other arms reach out to me." Blaine sang with a smile, his eyes sparkling.

"Other eyes smile tenderly." Puck smiled back at him, a glint in his brown eyes that made Blaine's pulse speed up.

"Still in peaceful dreams I see. The road leads back to you." They harmonized, Puck stepping closer to him. The floor dropped out underneath Blaine's feet in the most pleasant sort of way. "Woah, Georgia, Georgia. No peace, no peace I find. Just an old, sweet song. Keeps Georgia on my mind (Georgia on my mind)."

"I said just an old sweet song... Keeps Georgia on my mind." Blaine's fingers played the last notes automatically, with no prompting from his brain and, in less then a second, he was on his feet, wrapping in Puck's strong arms and laughing a bit as his shirt crinkled and Puck lifted him off the ground before placing him back down with a small swing.

Millie made some sort of knowing noise before she turned back to her station and Blaine almost felt like blushing. Only he didn't. And he, instead, leaned up to kiss Puck on the cheek. By accident, or what he wanted to say was accident until Puck responded, his lips hit Puck's lips. He didn't know what made him do it, besides that Puck looked so real and so there and so... like everything Blaine had wanted all Senior Year.

Puck may have pinned him against the piano but the kiss was gentle. There was no rushing. There were no thoughts, just feeling of static traveling through Blaine's whole body. He breathed in through his nose and was hit with a smell that was so distinctly Puck that it was almost suffocating. Their heads tilted in unison, Puck's tongue running over Blaine's bottom lip and the rest was history.

Piano was probably the most relaxing thing that Blaine had ever played. He couldn't particularly explain why. It was more the simple matter that music was his one outlet in life – it did something for him that even boxing couldn't do. It pulled at his insides, allowed him to tell the world how he was feeling, whether the world wanted to know or not.

His fingers trailed lightly over the keys, tapping out a small and quiet melody. He had no specific song in mind, just a tune.

Kurt used to tease him about it – you know, when they were still talking. He used to tell him how ridiculous it was that Blaine would always have a song stuck in his head, regardless of the time or place. It wasn't meant to be insulting, but it was. Sort of.

Blaine shut his eyes tightly against the onslaught of memories and thoughts and songs and slammed his hands against the keyboard, creating a loud clang of unattractive music.

His head fell against his arms and he collapsed heavily onto the bench, his fingers trailing over the keys once more, a tear falling from his eye and making a path down his cheek, over his nose, and dripping down his chin. "I feel you close, I feel you breathe. And now it's like you're here. You're haunting me." His brain provided the words, provided the slowed tune, provided everything for his broken heart. Blaine didn't even know what had happened. He didn't even know what he had done wrong.

A small sob pushed through his lips and he pressed his face tighter into his folded arms.

Kurt hadn't done anything wrong, per say. It was all Blaine's fault really. He hadn't been ready to take that leap of faith. He hadn't been quick enough to reassure Kurt that he was there for forever and Kurt had left when he had the chance. Nothing was wrong with that. Blaine couldn't blame him. "But I know, I just gotta let it go, I, should've known. I gotta learn to say goodbye now. I throw my armor down, and leave the battleground. For the final time now, I, I know. I'm running from a warzone."

If there was anything Blaine hated more than the pain in his heart it was the factthat it was Blaine's own fault for closing off. Only maybe it wasn't his fault – that is what Mike had been telling him, anyway. That's what Cooper had been telling him through late night phone conversations. It was perfectly normal to not be ready to give up everything in your life for someone else when you're only seventeen years old. It's perfectly normal to want some time to think about whether you want to go for early graduation to move to New York. It was perfectly normal to not be sure even a month after the idea had been pitched. It was a big decision after all. And it would mean so much...

It was also perfectly normal for Kurt to decide that he couldn't wait any longer.

Blaine let his hand slip down the piano and dangle by his side, trying to force the tears back. It didn't work very well. "You okay?" He jumped at the voice coming from the door leading into the choir room. Blaine raised his head, blinking at Noah Puckerman and wiping at his face uselessly.

"What are you doing here?" His voice sounded horrible and he hid a wince coming from the rasping portion of it.

Puck smiled a bit sadly at him, walking farther into the room and jerking his head at the door where it was obvious from the trailing group of people leaving the school that football had just gotten out. "Coach kept us a bit longer than usual to go over some plays."

Blaine nodded slowly, placing his head back on top of his arms. Puck sat down next to him on the bench, staring at him for a moment, something close to understanding in his eyes and his hand rubbed up and down Blaine's back. It was surprisingly comforting. Something that Blaine would never have expected from the other boy when it came to him. "Thank you for not asking." He muttered, sniffling and allowing a few more tears to slip down his face.

Puck smiled a bit, a sad look in his eyes and his finger tapping out a small tune on the higher part of the piano. It was obvious he had no idea what he was doing when it came to that instrument but it made the room not as silent and it caused Blaine to smile a bit as he created some sort of tragically beautiful harmony. "Kurt's an idiot. Letting you go." Puck shrugged. "And he has his girls. I figured you'd need someone more than him."

Teaching Puck how to play guitar was the only thing his father had ever taught him that was worth while. And, for the longest time, Puck had held back with playing it in front of anyone simply because it reminded him of his father. His mother used to get this look on her face whenever Puck played, as though he were his father, and Puck hated that look more than he hated seeing his little sister cry.

He glanced down at Blaine curled up on his dorm bed, the sheets pooling at his hips and his mouth open just a tad, breath streaming out with every passing second. His head was on Puck's pillow, his hair strewn in a circle, curls on his forehead and sticking up in every direction.

Yes they had had sex the night before. No it hadn't been their first time intimate with one another. And, no, Puck wasn't about to let it be the last.

Only the feelings inside of him were just a tad terrifying. Puck had never felt this connection, this need, for another person before in his life. It was as though he finally understood those words that Miss Sylvester had written after her sister's death about that invisible tether.

Puck slid on a pair of boxers, grabbing his guitar and sitting against the head board. He didn't want to wake Blaine up, but he didn't want to leave the room either. He would simply play softly.

The song wasn't one that was his favorite, but it was one that Santana had introduced to him back when they were best friends in seventh grade. It was still the only song by the girl he could listen to without wanting to tear out her vocal chords.

"I wake up in the morning. Put on my face. The one that's gonna get me through another day. Doesn't really matter how I feel inside. 'Cause life is like a game sometimes." Blaine didn't live in California, he didn't even go to school in California. He went to Julliard all the way in New York and it was a stupid decision of them to ever try this long distance relationship thing but they were doing it. And it was working out, Puck getting his degree in counseling and keeping open his pool cleaning business with enough clients to actually keep paying his tuition. Blaine hadn't run into Kurt or Rachel yet and Puck figured that was a really good thing. He wasn't entirely sure if he could keep Blaine to himself if Kurt showed back up.

Though, he really should be more trusting. Blaine had told him countless times that he loved him, that he loved only him, and being afraid of Kurt only made Puck seem petty.

"But then you came around me. The walls just disappeared. Nothing to surround me and keep me from my fears. I'm unprotected. See how I've opened up. Oh, you've made me trust." He sang softly to himself, strumming the guitar in slow, practiced measures of time. He leaned his head back against the wall, relishing in the feeling of Blaine's breath puffing against his leg. "I'm trying to remember why I was afraid to be myself and let the covers fall away. I guess I never had someone like you to help me, to help me fit in my skin."

Without even knowing it Puck's mind slipped back to the night before, to the feeling of Blaine's lips on his, to the feeling of his skin beneath his, to the clatter of bags as he walked through the door and promptly tackled Puck onto the bed. To the feeling of being inside him, the tight feeling that made his heart clench because Blaine hadn't even fingered himself during their months apart. To the whisper against his lips that he had held back because it just didn't feel right. To the coiling in his stomach as he came...

It was the most exposed Puck had ever felt whenever he had sex with Blaine.

"I never felt like this before. I'm naked around you... Does it show? You see right through me and I can't hide. I'm naked around you, and it feels so right."

"You still sound great." Blaine's sleepy voice broke him out of his thoughts, Blaine's fingers trailing up and down his bare leg with a yawn. Puck smiled down at him, placing the guitar on the ground and sliding back down next to him. "I never said you could stop."

Puck snorted at him, kissing his nose with a small exaggerated noise, laughing when Blaine's face wrinkled when he pulled away. The younger boy kissed his jaw after a tiny yawn, snuggling back into Puck's shoulder, wrapping his arms around his back and hugging his tight, Puck only happy to return the favor. "I'm naked around you." Puck sang in his ear.

"Liar." Blaine hit at his chest. "You are wearing pants. You are not naked."

"Care to change that for me?" Puck pushed his hips upwards towards Blaine's own, his half hard member making itself known.

Blaine bit at his shoulder, laughing a bit. "No. Do it yourself."

Puck growled, rolling him over so that he was laying on top of him, pinning his arms down to his side and glaring at him as he laughed, leaning down to kiss him quite a bit more than was needed for first thing in the morning. By the time they pulled away from one another the kiss had turned more romantic than it had started, their foreheads resting together and breath mingling.

They didn't need to say anything. They already knew what the other felt.

They've moved out to Maine – Maine of all places – and they live in this pretty nice house next door to Santana and her wife Paige. It's not a big house, but it's home and Blaine couldn't feel more secure. He's on the way to becoming a well known artist, and Puck's a guidance counselor at a local high school and they're happy. That's the most important thing, really. That they're happy. They don't need anything else besides that happiness. Blaine doesn't need a record deal or fame or fans or anything. He just needs the happiness that they have.

He sighed, his fingers running gently over the piano in the living room. They didn't have much yet, no television was set up, and their couches hadn't arrived yet. But they had a piano. And Blaine could live with just having a piano and Puck and only those two things in his life for the rest of his life.

It was all horribly corny and he should really get his brain checked if that was the way he thought all the time. "Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm,I know; It's been comin' for some time." His grandmother used to sing the song to him whenever he went through a particularly hard day at home or at school before she passed away. It wasn't as though today had been a hard day, but the song brought him back to simpler times. Things were pretty simple at the moment too, but there was just something about being with your grandmother in a house with cookies in the oven and a fort made on her couch with no Cooper that stuck out to him. "When it's over, so they say, It'll rain a sunny day,I know; Shinin' down like water."

He knew Puck was watching him, it had become a sort of taboo with the two of them. They always tended to catch each other playing their instrument of choice. Blaine didn't jump when Puck sat down beside him, his arm falling around his waist and pulling him closer, resting his head on Blaine's shoulder as he played. "I want to know, Have you ever seen the rain?I want to know, Have you ever seen the rain comin' down on a sunny day?"

Puck kissed his neck lightly and it seemed as though the atmosphere changed right then and there. "We are not having sex on the piano." Blaine said sternly, laughing when Puck ran his hand over his ticklish area and leaned him down so that he was basically lying on the bench.

"How about the bench?" Puck whispered against his lips, leaning over him and nuzzling into his neck. The bench was wooden, connecting to the front of the house in a booth sort of way. It was a spot that they had put in specifically for the piano when the house was being built.

And maybe for this.

"Fine." Blaine smiled against his lips, running his hand down Puck's chest, as Puck worked at the buttons on his own button down tugging the shirt off his shoulders and folding it carefully and placing it under Blaine's head so that it didn't bang against the wood too much, slipping off his own at the same time, relishing in the feeling of Blaine's hands running up his bare chest. He leaned down and kissed at his lips again.

Yes... this is what happiness felt like.

A: N - Yeah... I'm in a fluffy mood lately. Cadenza will be updated sometime this week (hopefully) as will the others. Writers block sucks. All I gotta say. If anyone has prompts send them my way.