Yes, I'm an unashamed Kurt/Mercedes shipper. I fell in love and now it's impossible for me to stop. I have no problem with the fact that Kurt is gay, but my brain will not stop it. And so this fic was written. Even if you don't like Mercedes/Kurt, you can look at this as a look inside Kurt's head, which is a marvelous thing in and of itself.

They learn a lot of each other's secrets. It's just the kind of thing that happens when you're best friends with someone. He told her his one big secret, the one he told her first, before he told even his dad, and they're best friends from that point on.

Mercedes tells him about how she's been involved in music since she was five, when she would make up words to the songs playing on the radio. Her mom got her into voice lessons by age seven, and she's really never looked back from there. How, even though her three older brothers were almost always busy with sports and friends and such, they would sing with her whenever she asked them to, or at least take a rain check that would be filled no more then two days after.

Kurt tells her that he's never really had any formal training, that he's sung in the shower for years, but he thinks that sometimes things just come to people, like him being able to hit those high notes and swing his leg to kick something in a high, straight, powerful arc. His dad found out he could kick like that when Kurt came home from kindergarten one day and nearly put a hole in the wall in anger and frustration at some of his classmates. They'd spent the rest of the day in the backyard, Kurt taking three steps up to the beat of whatever song was playing and striking the ball as hard as he could. His mom sat over to the side, laughing at her husband's joy and her son's pride.

She tells him that she learned to be tough playing football with her brothers in the backyard. They've always been a close family, so it was never a question that the day Mercedes turned five, she would be invited into their games in the same way that Malcolm and TJ had been invited as soon as they were old enough for that kind of "rough-housing" as Mom called it. So, all through the spring and summer and fall (and the occasional day in winter, when the snow was fresh and new and perfect for football), the Jones kids would run out into the backyard and quickly divide into teams. They still do this when the boys come home from college The boys never argue over who's going to have Mercedes on their team, because in their backyard, it's not about boys and girls, but about fun and family and football.

He tells her that he's been working on cars with his dad since he was 6, when his mom finally deemed it safe for him to be in the garage. At first it was only handing the tools to his dad (he's always had an exceptional memory, so he'd known the names of most of the tools since he was three or four), but eventually, he's working on the cars himself, even when his dad is somewhere else. It teaches him early on not to be bothered so much by being dirty, which will help him later on during various trips into the dumpster and various slushie facials. His dad's present to him the first birthday after Mom dies is his own pair of coveralls, with his own name patch and everything, and Kurt doesn't think he's ever received a better gift.

Kurt learns that, although she doesn't really enjoy it, she's exceptionally good at math. The numbers seem to just organize themselves in her head, and she hasn't ever really thought of it as a gift. It's just one of those things, like her singing and Kurt's kicking, that come naturally that you shouldn't question. So they spend many a night in Kurt's basement, trying to get the numerous formulas to stick in Kurt's head.

Mercedes learns that, as good as his memory is and as much as he excels in his other subjects (because he does, he's near the head of the sophomore class in rank), he's absolutely terrible at math. He sucks at it. The numbers refuse to compute in his head, and he can barely remember how to do basic algebra sometimes, much less keep the quadratic equation, or any other equation for that matter, memorized for more then an hour or so. So they spend almost every evening sitting in his basement, her helping him with his math and him helping her with all the other subjects.

Sometimes, when they're singing with the others, or sitting with each other at lunch, or alone in his basement working on homework and talking, Kurt thinks about how things might be if he were different. Hell, she doesn't even need to be there for him to start thinking about how things might be. He thinks that he likes the idea, the idea of them together, with walks down the hallway with tangled fingers and stolen kisses against the lockers between periods.

--

The first time he nearly kisses her (nearly as in he was just beginning to lean in, not noticeably but enough for him to know what his intentions were but not for her to know) was on the bus on the way to Regionals. They're taking place across the state, so it's an all night bus ride for the kids from Lima, and Kurt and Mercedes take their usual place together at the back of the bus.

For a while, there was bantering among the Glee clubbers, joking and laughing and light roughhousing. Eventually though, they all quiet down, and the bus is almost silent except for some classic radio station playing softly over the speakers. Occasionally there's a rustle of clothes shifting or a quiet whispering, but nothing that can really disturb the peaceful calm that's fallen over the bus. Mercedes sits close to Kurt, her right arm looped through his left and her head on his thin shoulder.

It's a comfortable, familiar position for both of them, and soon they're both sleeping soundly as the bus speeds down the highway toward their destination. After a few hours, the bus pulls into a rest stop, and the teens are gently woken by Mr. Shue and Ms. Pillsbury. Being at the back of the bus, Kurt and Mercedes are woken last, so they're still stirring as the rest of the bus disembarks.

She looks up at him from his shoulder with sleepy, half-closed eyes, and he can smell her hair (it smells like some odd combination of mangos and mint, which he likes for reasons he doesn't understand), and that's when he almost kisses her, almost closes the distance between his mouth and her smiling one for the first time. But he reminds himself that he can't lead her on like that, that doing that would most definitely ruin this friendship, and that these feelings must be coming from the late hour and the smell of her hair (and they're most definitely not coming from those thoughts that he has sometimes).

So he just smiles back and stretches, breaking whatever moment there might have been, and they make their way off of the bus behind their group mates.

The second time he nearly kisses her, it's after a football game (when Coach gave them all a chance to go back Kurt did, because he likes kicking, and more importantly, he likes how proud it makes his dad).

It was a long game against William H. Taft High, McKinley's big rival, and Kurt's been a perfect three-for-three on field goals and hit the one extra point he's been asked to kick. But Finn's fumbled twice and Puck dropped a sure touchdown, while the two defenses have just been pounding the absolute crap out of each other's offense. And not even dancing would help McKinley now, because the WHTHS players hate them so much that if God himself descended upon the field and sang Single Ladies while the McKinley guys preformed their best version of the dance, they'd pause for only a moment before charging across the line and attempting to rip someone's head off.

As the clock ticks down and the score remains 17-16 in favor of Taft, Finn loops two more passes over the heads of the charging defenders and Matt bruises his way for one more three yard gain, and then it's 4th and 2 with three seconds left. The ball sits on the 42 yard line, which means that Kurt Hummel is trotting out on to the field for a 59 yard field goal to win or lose this game. The longest field goal in Ohio state history is only a yard longer then that.

He takes a deep breath as he stands out on the field, his eyes first finding his dad, standing among the other parents in the stands, and even from here Kurt can see the tears shining at the edges of his eyes. His dad will be proud of him whether he makes this kick or not, because his dad is always proud of him.

Next his eyes find his friends, leaning against the railing in front of the student section, cheering louder then any of the other students combined. Eventually though, he's only looking at Mercedes, and she's looking at him, and their eyes meet, or as much as your eyes can meet all the way across a football field through a helmet and a bunch of people. Taking another deep breath, he steps back and cues the music.

He's not sure what song it is this time, just that he can find the beat and let the three familiar steps fall. One, two, three, he steps through without pausing, not thinking about kicking at all, but rather thinking about his dad and his mom and his teammates and his friends and her. The McKinley crowd, silent as a mime's grave while he stepped up and kicked, explodes in whoops and incoherent cheers, because they know it's good. While just moments ago there was more drama then your average reality show, now there's only celebration as the kick finally does break the plain of the goalposts and Kurt disappears under a pile of red jerseys.

The students pull down the goalposts in a matter of minutes as they flood the field, and someone finds the game ball and presents it to Burt as he stands high above the scene, looking down on it with tears on his cheeks. In that moment, it doesn't matter that Kurt is gay or that he's in Glee club or anything, because there's just an overwhelming feeling of happiness and victory and a strange kind of "we're all in this together so we might as well dance with each other while we have the chance" love in the air right now.

It doesn't take her long to reach him in the middle of the group of students, a smile as long as the field goal he just made splitting her face in half. His helmet has been lost somewhere in the crowd, and his hair is horribly messed up, but neither of them care as she embraces him and he embraces her. They stand there for a while, people clapping hands down roughly on his shoulder pads and yelling incoherently all around them, until she pulls away and looks up at him still smiling.

"Nice kick," she says, then pauses for a moment before continuing, "But your hair looks like crap right now, you know?"

And it's then that he nearly kisses her, with her beaming up at him and his hair all over the place, with happiness in the air all around them and her having the perfect comment for this moment. But someone thumps him on the shoulder pads particularly hard and the moment's broken, and he's glad. Because he can't do that to her, or to himself, or to the other kids, because in this moment he doesn't need to give any of them heart attacks because it turns out that Kurt Hummel isn't gay (which he is). Of course it's these reasons that he doesn't do it (and not those thoughts that he still has, no matter how much he tries to squash them).

The third time he nearly kisses her is at Nationals, after they've just sung their hearts out and they're celebrating backstage, because they know they did well and it doesn't matter whether they win or lose, because it's about the moment, the experience rather then the prize.

They've been embracing since they left the stage, Kurt stumbling over feet that he still hasn't grown into as they both trip down the stairs. He trips at the bottom and spins them into the room as she laughs and he laughs with her as the rest of the club closes in around them, celebrating.

The energy in the room seems to make the lights shine brighter and Kurt can see the tears of happiness threatening to spill out of Mercedes's eyes and they look like diamonds. And suddenly he doesn't realize that there's anyone else in the room, even though just moments ago he could feel them all around him and hear their cheering.

He nearly kisses her then, and he almost doesn't fight it, almost says consequences be damned and does it, but Mike spins her away from him and Tina takes her place and he's never been more thankful for Asians in his entire life. Because the little bit of almost left wasn't going to last very long if she kept looking at him like that, with diamonds in her eyes and that smile lighting up the room.

The fourth time he nearly kisses her is nine months after Nationals, and they've been nine months full of music and high school and a stretch of summer that hadn't seemed like it would ever end that had indeed ended with the harsh ringing bell of first period on a warm August morning.

The Glee club's back together again, with a few new freshman and sophomore members, but it's the same core of juniors that form the backbone of the group. They're all dealing with issues just like they were last year, and there's high school romance all over the place (now complete with a new baby girl and still mending broken hearts).

They're a week away from Sectionals, and Mercedes and Kurt are in the auditorium, Kurt playing the piano as she practices her solo. She moves behind him to check notes in the book he's got spread out in front of him, because she wants this to be perfect. He joins her, singing a few lines so she can harmonize, and he looks back at her still leaning slightly over his shoulder as he continues to play.

She's smiling as she sings, and there's really not that much space between them, her hand sitting lightly on his shoulder as she reads the notes. Her dark eyes meet his blue-green ones, and he wonders if he's ever really noticed how much they sparkle when she's truly happy (he has, but he tells himself he hasn't because that's not something he's supposed to notice). He doesn't want to kiss her because it would mess up her singing, and their whole relationship, and many other things that he can't think about when she's smiling at him and singing.

His fingers slip and he hits a wrong note, the kind of wrong note that requires a physical wince when it happens, and the moment's broken and he's ridiculously grateful. She stops singing to laugh at him as he curses and tries to find his place again. When he starts up again, she picks up where she left off, and the balance of the universe is restored again.

The fifth time he nearly kisses her is when he wakes up to his phone ringing loudly and he picks up to her tearful voice on the other end of the line. He's sitting up before he even realizes it, and asks her where she is as he begins looking for his car keys. He stops when she tells him that she's in his driveway already, and that she's sorry but she couldn't think of anywhere else to go.

Kurt tells her not to worry about it, and heads down the stairs without changing out of his pajamas, an old comfortable pair of grey McKinley High sweatpants (because as picky as he is about what he wears, there are times when it comes down to comfort alone, and sleeping is one of those times). It's drizzling outside, and he finds her leaning against her car, tears streaming down her cheeks.

He leads her down to the basement, putting two levels between them and his dad's room. Kurt hands her a towel and pulls her down to sit next to him on the couch. Mercedes spills the moment he looks at her, about the car accident, about how the doctors aren't sure if TJ will ever wake up again and even if he does, chances that he'll ever walk again are next to nothing. She tells him about Devon sobbing in the waiting room, hugging Malcolm like the sun will never rise again, about how she's never seen any of her brothers like that, Devon sobbing, Malcolm wide eyed and pale, TJ unmoving, ever present grin gone like a light that somebody cut the cord to.

And she tells him about the huge fight between her parents, worse then any they've ever had in her memory, the one that drove her from the house in tears because she can't take it anymore. And all Kurt can do is pull her to him and hug her tightly, her tears running down his chest among the warm rain that's still sitting there.

Eventually, her crying starts to soften, but Kurt can't stand the thought of her out driving in the rain, not with her brother in the hospital and the situation at home unknown. So he pulls her up long enough for him to drag the couch out into a bed, then pulls the extra blankets from the closet.

Kurt considers heading back up to his room, but there's a large part of him that's not willing to leave her alone right now, so he grabs another pillow and settles in next to her, arm around her shoulders as she buries her face in his bare shoulder again. It's more then an hour before she drops off, and he follows soon after, falling asleep with the smell of her hair in his nose (it still smelled like mangos and mint, though not as strong as the last time he got a good whiff of it).

The next morning, he wakes up with her face still buried in his shoulder and her tears drying on his skin. He doesn't want to move, to mess up this moment with her, but he needs to make sure his dad knows she's here before he stumbles upon them sleeping in the basement. Kurt replaces the space where his body formally occupied with a warm pillow and pulls a shirt on over his head as he climbs the stairs.

His dad's already up and making breakfast, and Kurt's glad it's a Sunday, because it means that his dad probably won't open the shop until at least noon. He explains the whole situation, about Mercedes and her brother and the bed in the basement, and his dad seems to mostly understand. There's a peculiar sparkle in his eye that Kurt can't quite place, but he shrugs it off and goes down to wake Mercedes for breakfast.

He shakes her shoulder gently, and she stirs slightly, turning to look up at him with a small smile on her face. And in that moment, where she's just a little confused and the weight of the day hasn't hit her yet, he really almost kisses her. But the twinkle in his dad's eye and the fact that she doesn't need anything else complicating her life right now stops him. Kurt blames it on the fact that she looks very pretty in the early morning light streaming in from the one window in the basement and the fact that the smell of her hair still lingers in his nose (and once again, it's not those thoughts that he still has sometimes, about how things could be and just how much he likes that thought.)

The sixth time he nearly kisses her is at their senior prom. There wasn't really anyone he wanted to ask more (not even any of the guys, which is a strange feeling for him), and no one had asked her yet, so he took the plunge and she said yes. They don't think it's normal for homecoming dates to go shopping with each other for their outfits, but they've never exactly been normal, so they drag Artie and Tina along with them and have as much fun as is legally allowed.

He finds a black designer suit that fits perfectly, and she finds an amazing blue dress that they both absolutely adore. Kurt finds that, as they look for something for Tina and Artie, he sometimes has trouble keeping his eyes off of Mercedes. She's been walking on air for the past week and a half, what with TJ starting to take his first baby steps since the accident and Kurt asking her to prom and finding this perfect dress, and he wonders how it would feel to walk on to that dance floor and have all the guys be truly jealous because she's wearing that dress and that smile and she's with him, rather then just his date for the evening.

But he squashes those thoughts down as usual and prepares for the big night. When he picks her up at her house before they head to Artie's for pictures, her dad gives him a stern look and her a long hug before they head off. Kurt would have wondered what the stern look was for, because Mr. Jones knows him, but he's so blown away by how absolutely beautiful she looks, and how she lights up when he kisses her hand and links his arm through hers that he really can't think of anything else.

When they finally get to the dance, the first few songs are fast songs, and they have fun dancing their hearts out with Artie and Tina, and Mike and Brittany (who've apparently decided that popularity can just go screw itself tonight, because they're going to dance with their friends. Because as successful as Glee as been, it's still a long way from being the cool thing in school, but Mike has been hanging out with these four for a couple years now, and Brittany for at least one, and so popularity can jump off a cliff for all they care.)

When a slow song comes on, Artie wheels himself into a space with enough room for him and Tina to sway comfortably, and Mike laughs as he pulls Brittany close and she giggles into his shoulder. Kurt bows slightly, offering his hand to Mercedes as she smiles and they dance. He hums along for a few bars as they dance, and she quietly sings the chorus.

"You look marvelous, by the way," he says, "Angels would forfeit a beauty contest to you before it even started. Not that they can hold a candle on a normal day either."

She laughs as he spins her away and back into him again, "You look amazing too, boy. Definitely the best-dressed guy here. Not that that's anything new," she answers, and he gives his "I know, what can I say except I'm fabulous" shrug that he's perfected and she laughs again, moving just a little closer as they sway.

It's in that moment that he nearly kisses her, with her smile like an angel and that perfect blue dress and the song playing softly in the background. He's not sure there's ever been a more perfect moment in his life, and he's just about to close the distance when she lays his head against his chest as they sway. Her hair still smells of mango and mint (he's been meaning to ask her what product she uses to have it smell like that, but probably never will, as some part of him thinks it just smells that way naturally, and he likes to ponder about it), and he's pretty sure it's the most amazing smell ever, even though he doesn't think anyone else would find it quite so appealing.

They dance together for a few more slow songs before the pace picks up again and their friends join them. Eventually all of the senior Glee members find their way over and they dance together as a group, laughing and singing and enjoying themselves far too much. They lead the Single Ladies dance when it comes on, and belt out Don't Stop Believing like their lives depend on it, and the thought never once crosses their minds that this has to eventually end. Kurt dances with Tina and Brittany, and even manages to get Quinn away from Puck long enough for a quick dance.

But for the most part, he dances with, or at least next to, Mercedes, so it's no surprise that when the final dance is called, it's her he finds among the crowd. It's a perfect night in his eyes as her head finds it's suddenly comfortable and familiar spot against his shoulder and they dance to a song he doesn't know the name of, but is suddenly an insanely big fan of.

He doesn't know the words, but he hums along to the chorus as it plays, and when the song is finally over, they're not quite ready to be done yet. They sway for a minute more as the crowd begins to disperse, before Kurt kisses her hand and offers to escort her to Artie's to hang out with the group for a little while before they head home, and she agrees with a laugh. They head out into the night with their friends and each other.

--

After high school, they head off in different directions. Kurt heads to the University of California at Berkley to major in fashion design and marketing, and she heads to NYU, where she's quickly a rising star in their choir as she tries to decide just what the future holds for her.

His freshmen year, Kurt meets a tall, blond haired guy named John, and they date for a little while, and even after they break up, they're still good friends, and when Mercedes comes to visit him, he finds it a little odd that he wonders if she's ever jealous of all the attention he gives John, even after they're not together anymore. But she brings news of a new boyfriend, Reggie, with her when she comes to stay with him over the summer after their freshmen year.

When the summer after their sophomore year rolls around, Kurt takes off for New York this time, leaving his new guy, Jamie, for a while to spend the summer with his best friend. He arrives just in time to comfort her when Reggie breaks up with her for reasons that she doesn't understand and probably never will, he tells her.

When the summer of their junior year rolls around, they're both single, and it seems only natural to them now that they'll spend the summer being young and happy with each other in Berkley again, and they're perfectly happy with that.

It's Finn idea to have the reunion, just a quick one day meeting of all of them back at the place that it all started. Kurt and Mercedes make their plans, looking forward to the whole group being back together in one place for the first time in two years. Mercedes will drive down from NYU, since she's closer, and Kurt will catch a plane and they'll meet in Lima, attend the reunion, and then drive to California together.

They're the first ones in the choir room when they arrive, and they lean against the piano together while they talk. They've been there for about five minutes when Kurt looks up, and realizes just how close she is. She's close enough that he can smell the mango and mint in her hair and her eyes and smile seem to be encompassing his whole world.

Mercedes notices something too, something different in the air between them, and they both fall silent as they stand next to each other. Kurt thinks about all the times he's nearly kissed her, and thinks that this will probably be added to that list soon. But he still has those thoughts, about him and her and the future together. He tries to trick himself into thinking he's actually surprised, even though he's really not, when he closes the distance between their lips and kisses her.

He's grown since high school (though he still hasn't grown into his huge feet, which he's accepted as a Hummel family trait. His dad's feet are ridiculously large as well), so their height difference is perfect in the way that he only has to bend his neck slightly for their lips to meet. There's no urgency to the kiss, it's soft and sweet and he doesn't touch her for a few seconds, until his hand slowly drifts up to cup her cheek as she returns the kiss.

After what seems like forever, but can't possibly have been that long, they pull apart, and Kurt smiles down at Mercedes as she smiles up at him. For a moment, they just stand there, basking in the glory of whatever it is that just happened. They quickly spin apart as the door clicks open, and Finn and Rachel enter, his arm lazily draped over her shoulder as they laugh.

Kurt prepares for the inevitable twinge of jealousy that he always feels toward whoever it is that Finn has his arm draped over (he eventually got over loving Finn Hudson, but there's always a part of you that never gets over your first major crush), but it's missing, even as Finn smiles his huge dopey smile and drops a kiss on to Rachel's hair before greeting the other two. He doesn't want to believe that it's because he finally actually kissed Mercedes, but there's a part of him that knows that's exactly the reason.

The rest of the group arrives, all bearing some signs of growing up and moving on from Lima. Matt and Puck are the most obvious, Matt with his OSU letter jacket hanging loosely from his shoulders and Puck with his new Marine haircut (Kurt also notices that Puck sticks closer to Quinn's side, and his eyes don't stray to the other girl's butts nearly as much. Maybe he really was changing, growing up). Others are less obvious, like the thin gold band around Tina's pinky (she'd told Kurt, Mercedes, Mike, and Brittany about the promise ring Artie had given her a few months ago, but the rest of the club didn't know yet) or the way that Mike's hand strays toward Brittany's stomach sometimes when he thinks the rest of them aren't looking (they're getting married in a few months, and they're planning on making the announcement then).

Kurt enjoys himself immensely, laughing and singing and spending time with his old high school group, but he finds himself fighting the urge to take Mercedes's hand and tangle her fingers with his own. He doesn't quite know what this thing is yet, and he doesn't want to ruin it by doing anything that could mess it up even the smallest bit. So for the most part, he simply keeps his arm linked with Mercedes's in the friendly way that they've been linking them for years. But towards the end of the day, as they sit around in the practice room for a few more minutes and sing a few more songs, he finds that his pinky seems to simply refuse to stay away from hers, and that they seem to be pinky swearing with their fingers tangled like that.

Tina is the only one who seems to notice at all, and she gives Mercedes the patented girl look for "You'll be telling me everything later" and Kurt really doesn't think he has a problem with that. Eventually, with hugs and tears and promises to call sometime soon, the club disperses, and Kurt and Mercedes head for their hotel. The ride passes in comfortable silence broken occasionally by a retelling of an event from earlier, and he's ridiculously happy that it's not awkward.

They've got rooms next to each other on the second floor of the Holiday Inn, and the silence from the car continues as they make their way up the stairs. They pause outside of the rooms, Kurt leaning lightly against the wall, trying to think of something to say. Mercedes is seems to be waiting for him to make the first move, to say something or do something, so he does.

Pushing away from the wall, he looks down at her for a moment before his hand finds her cheek and his lips find hers. He was surprisingly nervous that the kiss they'd shared earlier had just been a fluke, but it wasn't. This one feels just as amazing. Kurt knows that eventually, they'll have to break apart and go to their own rooms (and if they continue like this, anyone who rounds the corner will never believe that they ended up in separate rooms), but he doesn't want this moment to end.

Eventually though, he manages to pull away just enough to look into her eyes and smile down at her. She's smiling up at him in a way that makes him think that he could fly if he really wanted to give it a go. And he's sure that the same smile is splitting his face in two.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said, and she nodded.

"Long drive ahead of us."

"It'll be fun," Kurt said, and she laughed as she hugged him.

"Good night," he said, giving her one last kiss before turning and going into his room, still smiling.

Kurt changed into his pajamas (a dark blue pair of Cal sweatpants, since his legs had gotten too long for his old McKinley pair), and snuggled down into the blankets of the hotel bed. As tired as he was, he couldn't get to sleep. At least not yet.

He thought about everything that had just happened. He'd kissed Mercedes, several times, and he'd enjoyed it. In a million years, even after years of thinking how things could be if he were different, even after all the times he'd nearly kissed her, Kurt would have never guessed that he would enjoy kissing her as much as he did.

He thought about how his dad would react if he told him that he had kissed her. Wondered what the look on his face would be if, when Mercedes went into a gas station to grab snacks and drinks for the first leg of their journey, Kurt called his dad up and told him that he was maybe, kind of, probably, totally in love with a girl. As much as he wants to believe that his dad would be surprised out of his mind, he remembers the twinkle that his dad sometimes got in his eye when Mercedes would come over, and he thinks that maybe his dad won't be that surprised after all.

And he thinks about being in love. He wonders if it's really love that he's feeling towards her, or if these feelings are still just a combination of perfect moments in the light and the smell of her hair and thoughts of a future where it's him and her together. But, he decides, maybe that's what love is, a combination of all those things that come together to equal this extraordinary bliss that he's experiencing right now.

Kurt's not quite sure what to think, but he is sure of one thing. He's very glad he finally actually kissed Mercedes, and her hair still smells like mangos and mint.

Just a few notes: The lines about the largeness of Kurt's feet come from the fact that Chris Colfer has very large feet, and as a fellow possessor of feet that are too big for us, I can't help but love that fact. The tid-bit about what Mercedes's hair smells like is completely made up and has no canon support behind it, it was just something I needed for the story, so I made it up. Also, it's never been confirmed that Kurt rejoins the football team, but for this story, it was again necessary that he rejoin the football team. Plus, I love me some Kurt football.