I. Duets

"Rent it. Then, look up the menu for breadsticks and call me, because we are gunna win this thing."

Kurt turned and walked away, feeling slightly out of breath. He was swelling with pride, admiring his own confidence. He wrapped his hands around the strap of his shoulder-bag and mentally evaluated the situation. This Sam kid was in serious denial about the color of his hair. Kurt knew this meant he'd be hard to break.

Kurt suppressed the urge to second guess himself; to give up and just accept this boy's claimed heterosexuality. Things hadn't gone so well when he'd refused to do so with Finn. He had a feeling about Sam, though. Things were different; he could feel it. He couldn't just let what might be his one opportunity to finally have a boyfriend slide. He'd just sing with him. He'd play it safe and test the waters. Really, he had nothing to loose.

Of course, everyone else had trouble believing that his intentions were really so innocent. Finn told Kurt he was being inconsiderate, and that he was just trying to drag Sam down to his level of social alienation. His father basically accused him of preying on Sam. The pressure became too much for Kurt, and he cracked.

He told himself to deal with it. He'd consider Sam straight until Sam gave him real evidence to suggest otherwise.

"I'm setting you free…" It killed him to say those words, but he knew how necessary they were to keeping his own good name.

"Have I done something to offend you…?" He was so sweet.

"…You've been honorable…" Kurt tried to match the sweetness, but then he realized he couldn't be so quick to let his guard down. He told Sam he needed to sing with someone who matched his "Passion and talent level".

"Who's that?" The smirk: it almost killed Kurt it was so hot. Kurt just smiled, knowing if he stayed another minute to explain himself he'd end up throwing his books to the ground and leaping into the shower to attack him.

"You know they make special shampoo for color treated hair…"

And so, he spent the rest of the week watching Quinn and Sam make goo-goo eyes at each other and feeling great regret at the fact that it could've been him.

II. The Rocky Horror Glee Show

Kurt hadn't thought about Sam at all that week. Really. It wasn't that hard to forget about him. In Glee rehearsals, he'd just divert his attention elsewhere: piece of cake.

And then they tried on their costumes for Rocky Horror. Kurt and Rachel had theirs on and were waiting in the wing of the auditorium when Sam walked in.

"Oh…wow…" Rachel said lightly. Kurt glanced over his shoulder to see what she was looking at.

What she was looking at was…perfection. Sam was in tiny gold shorts. Everything about his body was obvious: obviously perfect…those abs…that ass…those legs.

Kurt pressed his lips together and blinked once in Sam's direction, then quickly moved his gaze to the floor.

"Honestly," He mumbled, feigning disapproval. "This is a school production…"

And then Sam walked right up to them. "This is so awkward," He complained.

Kurt looked him in the eye as he spoke. He was very careful about that.

"I agree. Your costume could've been more tastefully constructed," Rachel nodded. "Mercedes' Frankenfurter costume is fairly tamed-down. They could've provided you similar embellishments."

"Don't you think it's a little weird?" Sam asked them. "I was, like, created to be her sex-slave. And not to mention, he wanted Kurt to play her part…"

Kurt heard only his name, and snapped out of the daze he'd been pulled into. He realized with a pang of embarrassment that he'd been staring at Sam's stomach after all. He hoped no one had noticed, but a small smirk on Sam's face suggested he had.

"It would've been a hard role to act, wouldn't it, Kurt?" Sam teased.

An odd smile passed over Rachel's lips and she started moving away, leaving the two boys alone.

"What role?" Kurt kept on his poker face, just in case he was crazy, and Sam wasn't really flirting, like it suddenly seemed like.

"You know…" Sam tried. "You…playing a transvestite…who's attracted to every single thing about me because I was created for you to be attracted to every single thing about me, you know?"

Kurt felt flushed; feverish. He shook his head quickly. "No…I mean, yeah…I mean…" He really didn't know the correct answer.

Sam chuckled. "I'm sorry…" He said. "I'm trying to remain confident and I may be over-compensating a little."

Kurt just nodded. "Maybe just a little,"

"If you wanted to tell me I look sexy…" Sam continued. "Just to make me feel better, I wouldn't be freaked out or anything."

"Okay…" Kurt's lips were really dry, but he refused to lick them, potentially exposing how aroused he really was.

"Okay, what…?" Sam grinned. Oh god, he was really going to make him say it.

"Okay. You look sexy," Kurt said boredly.

And then they both laughed, because the moment was just too awkward for them not to.

III. Never Been Kissed

Kurt pulled the lapels of his blue jacket straight, and turned his face in the mirror, looking at it from different angles just to make sure he hadn't gotten any problem zits in the narrow window of time between lunch time and now.

"Hey…" Sam walked into the bathroom, in his own costume, and came up behind Kurt. "You look great."

Kurt turned around and examined his choir-mate to justify returning the compliment. "You too, Sam..."

"Come here…" Sam stepped in from of him and reached up to straighten Kurt's bow-tie. "We can't look anything less than perfect for the Beiste."

"If it wasn't for you, Sam, we wouldn't have to worry about her at all," Kurt replied, almost bitterly. He was working hard not to admit to himself that he was disappointed. Knowing Sam had trouble keeping…things…under control with Quinn kind of put a damper on his theory that Quinn was just a beard. Not that he cared…

"It was pretty sloppy, wasn't it?" Sam sighed. "I really feel bad, dude. We didn't think she'd figure it out."

"Yeah, well…" Kurt sighed. "You're only human…"

There was a long silence as they stood facing each other. Sam looked like he was thinking hard about something.

"…what…?" Kurt asked.

Sam hesitated. "I'm sorry, Kurt. I feel really bad about this assignment. I know we've all kind of shot down your ideas, and like…tried to get rid of you…"

"Its fine," Kurt sighed. "Some good came out of me visiting Dalton, believe it or not…"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked. "Did you figure out anything that will give us an edge at sectionals?"

"Not exactly…" Kurt wanted to remain coy. "It's been a rough week, and I made some friends there that I ended up really needing."

"You have friends here…" Sam reminded Kurt simple. "I noticed you've seemed sort of out of it this week. Do you want to talk about it?"

Kurt was sort of shocked that a straight boy was showing so much interest in his feelings. He knew he couldn't get too used to it or he'd be sure to fall in love with Sam. He knew he had to be careful. He'd already developed a premature crush on Blaine this week. He was about to get in over his head.

"I'm fine, Sam. Thanks for asking." He forced out.

"That's good," Sam nodded, pretending to believe him because it was easier. "I just think it would suck if you were unhappy."

"Yeah…." Kurt said. "Thanks…"

"Um…we should probably go to the choir room. Beiste is waiting."

"Yeah…" Kurt nodded. "Let's go."

IV. The Substitute.

"Who's that?"

Kurt slammed his locker instinctively as Sam came up behind him, hiding Blaine's picture from sight.

"A friend," He said nervously. It was the truth, embarrassingly enough. He knew it was sort of weird to have Blaine's picture in his locker already. They weren't even dating. They'd barely known each other two weeks. But it helped him through the long, hard day at McKinley, so he wasn't going to let the unconventionality of it get in his way.

"Do you, like, have a secret boyfriend?" Sam asked with genuine curiosity.

"We just started hanging out." Kurt defended himself. "It's casual. We're friends."

"I like the uniform," Sam wasn't going to drop it. "It really takes me back. I went to an all-boys boarding school back in Nashville, you know. I looked even better in a blazer."

"Oh, I'm sure," Kurt said, and he was. Sam would look better than anyone in anything.

"I'm guessing that's one of the new friends from Dalton that you've been raving about."

"I mentioned Dalton once, Sam…"

"You're dating our competition, aren't you? You know, Quinn told me some Jesse kid who…."

"For the love of god…!" Kurt exclaimed. "We're not dating!"

"Who's not dating?" Mercedes approached them.

"Kurt and some douche in a uniform…"

"Who, Blaine?" Mercedes asked. "They're not dating."

"Thank you!"

"Not officially. I give them two weeks."

Kurt narrowed his eyes at Mercedes. "You're dead to me."

"It's okay, I can keep a secret…" Sam grinned.

Kurt just rolled his eyes. He knew there was no way he could win this.

"What are you doing in here?"

Kurt looked up from the piano and saw Sam entering the dimly-lit choir room.

"I'm practicing. What does it look like I'm doing?" He said rudely.

"I left my music binder in here." Sam explained, going over to the rows of chairs. "Quinn says anytime you leave anything in here the nighttime custodian takes it home to give as a gift to his children or make it into abstract art."

"Ah, yes," Kurt smiled distantly. "That Javier is quite a renaissance man."

"So, what are you practicing?" Sam came over to the piano, his binder in his hand.

"Just a piece I've been composing…" Kurt said bashfully. "It's really nothing yet."

"Can I hear it?" Sam asked.

Kurt had pulled his hands from the keys and folded them in his lap. "No. I don't like to share my works-in-progress."

"I bet you'd show Blazer-boy if he asked…" Sam mumbled.

"Why do you have to keep bringing him up!" Kurt asked.

"Because it's fun to hear your voice get all high when you try to defend yourself," Sam slid, uninvited, onto the spot on the piano bench next to Kurt. With one finger, he began to pluck out an off-tempo "twinkle twinkle little star".

"Very nice," Kurt complimented dryly.

"I've been practicing," Sam elbowed him lightly. Kurt blushed and shifted in his seat. "I know, I'm not exactly Mozart…but I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job seeing how I've never had a lesson ever. I mean, I would've but my parents made me choose between this and guitar lessons. I figured guitar was cooler."

"You care a lot about being cool, don't you?" Kurt asked.

"What makes you say that?" Sam asked.

Kurt shrugged. "It's just an observation. I mean, if you didn't care about things like your appearance, you'd stick to your natural hair color."

Sam shook his head, knowing any argument he could come up with would be lost on Kurt. "You're one to talk. I bet your annual clothing budget costs more than the mortgage of my house."

"Touché, Evans…" Kurt laughed, rolling his eyes.

"It's okay, though," Sam said quickly. "I like your clothes, they look good on you."

"Yeah," Kurt sighed. "And your hair is…cute."

"I'd say it was a little more than cute," Sam ran his fingers through his locks sexily. Kurt could only nod in agreement. Sam leaned over and gave him another little nudge. Kurt wasn't sure why. He chuckled, and gave Sam a little nudge back. Sam lifted his hands to push Kurt, but Kurt grabbed his wrists and tried to force his arms back down, loosing himself in a fit of giggles. Sam was stronger then him, though. He couldn't win.

They arm wrestled in the air for several seconds before Sam suddenly gave up. Kurt bit his lip, feeling triumphant in his defeat, even if it did seem to be by forfeit. He was too busy processing the triumph. He neglected to process the fact that Sam was leaning closer to him now. Before Kurt could react, Sam had taken his head in his meaty palm, and was moving his plump, wet, lips around on his mouth. Kurt didn't know what to do, so he kissed back. Part of him believed for a moment that this was correcting the unwanted kiss he'd had with Karofsky only weeks earlier. This one was with someone he was actually attracted to; someone he actually got along with. However, as his kiss with Sam intensified, he realized that these kinds of kisses wouldn't make him happy either. He gently shoved Sam away.

"You have a girlfriend," He managed to squeak. "I never wanted to be this person…"

He hated that it had all happened like this: his first kiss had been unwanted. His first wanted kiss had to be kept a secret. He felt even more hopeless than before.

Sam made a face like he was just now realizing what he had just done. "…Yeah. Oh…okay. Sorry."

Kurt was almost offended that Sam didn't have more to say than that. Sam got up from the piano and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans as he walked out of the choir room. Kurt noticed that he'd left his binder behind.