Chapter Text
Monster, Libi-Shay Puckerman was born on the sunniest day during his first ball game of the season. Puck had been just a few months shy of eleven, and wanted to hate her because he had to be pulled from the field half-way through the game. His father had bailed months before and Puck had been scared, the doctor’s had used a lot of big words but all he could hear was the baby had made his mother sick.
He wasn’t even allowed to see his mother, and when Finn’s mom asked if he wanted to see his new baby sister he pitched a hell of a fit. She had taken him down the hall anyway. Puck couldn’t understand how something so small had made his Ma sick.
Both his Ma and the baby had to stay a few days in the hospital; he hadn’t gotten to see either of them after that first day. He hated the Doctors and the stupid Nurses who treated him like a little kid. He was the man of the house and damned if he didn’t let it be known.
~*~
The first week his Ma and the Monster baby had been brought home, there were a lot of people in the house. Puck hated them, they sure as hell hadn’t been there before, and he didn’t understand why they were there now. Finn and his Mom were there helping out, well, more like Carole helping out and Finn’s dumb ass giant self constantly dropping things. When they weren’t in school the boys had taken to staying hold up in Puck’s room playing Super Mario.
Puck was sure the monster had everyone under some strange trance. Everyone kept saying how cute it was, and how great it was to have around. Seriously? The thing was always crying, that’s all it did. Didn’t matter what time it was, you could hear it screaming from down the block. It was seriously cutting into his sleep. He didn’t understand why it wouldn’t stop. What the hell was so great about it anyway?
~*~
After a few weeks people stopped coming by and that made Puck a little nervous. Finn’s mom had taken to going back to work at the hospital and that left him coming home to just his Ma and the monster.
More often than not his Ma would be holding the monster, while yelling at him to go take out the trash or clean up the living area or the dishes. Sometimes she’d be asking it to just give her a minute. That’s when Puck would just storm out of the house.
The first time he’d come home to a quiet house he was under the impression that someone had taken both his Ma and the monster out. Which was stupid cause his Ma had refused to take ‘it’ out of the house. Something about her ‘imbune’ system being weak. The quiet only lasted a few minutes before he heard the monster screaming. When the screaming wasn’t followed by his mother’s shrill voice, he got a little curious.
The room across from his had been repainted, the walls were a soft mint green color, and the floors from under the window to the closet had been covered in a weird fluffy rug. Day’s before the monster came he used to walk around on it with his bare feet. There was a dresser pushed against the wall near the closet, along with a changing table. The bassinet that Finn’s mom had given them was placed in the middle of the room.
Geez, the monster must’ve had lungs the size of a basketball. He wondered why his Ma hadn’t heard it this time. Peeking into the bassinet he saw the round squirmy monster. It had come out of its blanket and was red in the face. Puck could only stare for a few minutes before looking back to the door. His Ma still hadn’t shown up.
Turning back to the monster he held a hand over her pushed outwards with his palms. Bright white and blue lights in orb like shapes appeared and circled the gold Hamesh Hand pendant hanging above the hood. Puck hadn’t noticed when the room got quiet again; he was having too much fun playing with the lights.
A small pink arm stretched upwards fragile fingers uncurling. Puck manipulated the orbs of light so that they moved towards the monsters hand. Round greenish brown eyes looked right up at him, it opened its mouth and Puck braced himself for a scream. Only what came out of the monsters mouth was a weird cooing sound.
“Sweet huh, I’ve been doing that since I could remember.” He wiggled his fingers and watched the orbs spin around. “Don’t tell Ma okay, she doesn’t know.” The shine of the lights dulled a bit when he took noticed how those round eyes started to flinch. “Sorry bout that, consider it a little payback for waking me up with your screeching.”
Puck moved his hands through the orbs pushing them upwards. “That’s not cool by the way, I know your small and all, and can’t really talk but this whole screaming thing…”
It really did like the lights. Puck wasn’t sure how long he could keep this up. He had never got a chance to see how long he could make the orbs stay. “Yah gotta ease up on us okay. If you really want attention you being you is all you need.”
The tiny finger caught one of the Orbs. For a second it flashed just the lightest shade of red before shooting back into Pucks hand. It tingled a bit where it entered and flashed a cool mix of blue, white and red before disappearing altogether.
“Whoa…how’d you?”
Monster was staring back at him as if daring Puck to say something.
~*~
Monster was barely two when he found out he knew her every move, and why they could not keep a sitter. No joke. His Ma had been on the phone trying to get a hold of anyone; no one person ever came back after just one time. He didn’t understand, still he wasn’t gonna complain. It gave him more free time to do what he needed to do. Monster was easy enough to watch on his own.
Regina Alderage was the last person he’d expected to see walking into his house. Puck remembered how she used watch him and Finn when they were smaller. Not only was she annoying, and mean but she’d to try and put them to sleep before the sun went down, always trying to boss them around even though she was just a few years older than they were. She didn’t last long. So why in the hell was she here?
He shrugged it off and walked back to his room, Finn and Mike were supposed to come over later. Screw the Sitter. If he had to stay home than he was gonna have fun.
Really he should known better.
The boys were upstairs into their game when the screaming from down stairs started. At first he hadn’t heard it because Finn had turned up the volume on the TV, and Mike was yelling about how they were cheating. Sucked to be Mike, he and Finn were laughing and punching the buttons.
That’s when he felt it.
The strong ass tug deep inside his chest.
It hurt but at the same time felt like he was feeling scare and a little pissed. The confusing feelings made him drop his game controller. He didn’t even bother with Finn or Mike just ran out his bedroom, and downstairs. He could hear Monster screeching at the top of her lungs but something was different.
Puck’s heart nearly stopped.
His Monster was standing in the middle of the kitchen covered from head to toe in Spaghetti Sauce and god knows what else. Regina was wringing her hands around some bowl. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. Puck didn’t care why she did it. The bitch had messed with his Monster. All he remembered was that he’d grabbed the nut case and shoved her out the front door, slamming it behind her.
When he turned around his Monster was holding out a hand, Puck swiped her up and sat her in the sink and started stripping her down. Finn and Mike had come down stairs in the middle of it all, Mike who had younger siblings started helping and filled the second sink with warm water. Finn made a face before taking the messed up clothes and throwing them into a bag.
Fifteen minutes later three of them were back in Puck’s room with a freshly bathed and changed Monster sitting on the floor between them growling at the game on TV.
~*~
It wouldn’t come to him till way later when Puck was lying in bed; rubbing at that spot on his chest, the one where those weird feelings came from; that he realized his Monster had been in trouble and had called for him.
Sitting up in bed he looked down at the palm of his hand, Puck pressed his index finger down into the middle of his hand. He remembered the first time that Orb had shot into his hand.
It was late and he should have been sleeping. Still. This he could not let go. He slipped out of bed anyway, and moved out across the hall to Monster’s room. The door was slightly open and the only sound he could pick up was the soft tune coming from the music tube. Puck tiptoed his way to the bars of the crib and peeked in.
Monster was sleeping on her side. Her fingers were curled around the leg of a stuffed dog. The one he’d given to her months ago because he thought it was cool looking.
The tips of his fingers bare skimmed her tiny curls, “בכל פעם לבי, בכל עת.”