Disclaimer: I'm thinking about asking Santa to give me the rights to Glee for Christmas. Think It'll work?

How it Begins

Somehow, it always started with Kurt.

Kurt telling Finn that he couldn't come back to Glee Club because it was "a closed rehearsal." Kurt trying out for kicker on the football team and leading them to their first win of the season. Kurt introducing their parents. Kurt, in that God awful room with the scarves flung everywhere and the blankets and pillows with the fringes, making Finn say horrible things that he never thought he would be capable of saying, let alone to him, and damn it Kurt was the one who liked him in the first place and was practically stalking him.

Kurt had such a presence that even things that didn't start with him, came back to him and all you could remember was that somewhere in there was Kurt, causing chaos.

Finn was late coming in from football practice. Coach Beiste had stopped him while the other guys walked to the locker room to shower.

"Hudson, you doing all right? You seemed a little off at practice today."

Sam walked past the pair, just close enough to still be in earshot. He gave Finn a competitive, yet still friendly smile, before hoisting his bag of gear up on his shoulder and walking off.

Finn glared at him. Bring it on, Evans.

"Finn." He returned his attention to Beiste.

"Sorry, coach."

"You look exhausted."

"Must have been all those laps." Finn tried for nonchalance and a half smile. He failed at both.

"No. You looked like that before practice even started. Is everything OK?" He considered lying to her, but she looked so concerned that he was answering her before he had realized that he made the decision to respond.

"I was up all night helping Kurt pack." He released a humorless laugh. "Actually it was more me trying to help him pack and him refusing while trying to act like leaving McKinley wasn't bothering him."

Beiste nodded. "Mr. Shuester told me that he was transferring."

"Yeah." Finn swallowed the lump forming in his throat. Just when he thought that he and Kurt would actually be OK… "Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"

Beiste looked out at the now empty football field. "No. I just- you know you can talk to me, right? And if you feel like your game might be compromised, I can let Sam step in as quarterback for a while."

"No!" She looked startled at the sudden exclamation. Finn backtracked. "I mean, no, but thanks. I'll be fine. Kind of want to rip Karofsky apart, but I'll be fine."

"Anytime," she said, clapping him on the shoulder, "you ever need anything, you just let me know." Her expression was serious as she watched Finn, with sympathy in her eyes.

"Thanks coach."

Finn dragged himself off to the locker room. Most of the guys were already getting dressed and gathering their things for the evening. The room smelled of men's body wash and the air was steamy, almost masking the constant stink of B.O.

Puck, Mike and Artie were waiting for him when he walked in. They seemed to have been having a hushed conversation. Puck and Mike were seated on one of the benches with Artie in front of them, heads bowed together. It looked like Sam had already taken off.

This immediately struck Finn as odd. If they were talking about Glee, it's not like it was a secret that they were in the club. Sure, they didn't go boasting about it, especially not after football practice where they got shit whether or not Glee came up, but they didn't sit around and whisper to each other either.

Finn thought he heard the words "eleven members" drift over to him.

They were discussing sectionals. They couldn't compete unless they got another member.

Finn wandered over to them and sat down heavily next to Puck. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Karofsky pulling his backpack out of his locker. Finn felt his blood begin to boil just at the sight of him. That explains the whispering.

"Dude, did you talk to him?"

Finn shifted his gaze to Puck, confusion on his face. "Who?"

He lowered his voice. "To Kurt." Puck looked at him disbelievingly. "Who else?"

Finn's eyes flicked to Karofsky again. Puck rolled his eyes and gave an angry huff, thankfully muffled by Karofsky slamming his locker shut.

"I tried, but he didn't really want to talk. He was pretty upset."

"We can't compete without him," Artie whispered.

"I know. And he knows that too, and I could tell he felt really bad about it, but we'll just have to find a replacement."

Puck shook his head. "l'll talk to Shue."

Mike scoffed. "What good'll that do?"

"Maybe he can work something out with Figgins so that Kurt can come back."

"He left for a reason," Finn retorted, momentarily forgetting to keep his voice down. The four boys looked up to see if anyone had noticed, but the locker room was mostly empty. Except for one boy, who was standing with his back to them, backpack resting on the bench in front of them with the straps clenched in his hand. Karofsky.

"Do you mind?" Mike asked, standing up slowly and trying his best to look threatening as Karofsky turned around, anger etched into every line on his face.

"Considering you guys are all talking about me behind my back? No, I don't mind."

Artie looked confused. "We weren't talking about you."

Puck stood up and pushed Mike aside, locking eyes with Karofsky. "Yes we were, Artie. We were talking about how big of an asshole Karofsky is for making Kurt transfer and getting away with it because the school board won't do shit." Puck raised his fist to Karofsky's face. "When my probation is up, I swear to God, the first thing I'm going to do is kick the shit out of you."

"But until then," Mike spoke up as he cracked his knuckles.

"Dude, seriously, Artie's more threatening than you and he's in a wheelchair."

"Thanks Puck," Artie said sarcastically.

"No, wait, stop. No one's punching anyone." Finn rubbed his hand over his eyes. He really was exhausted.

"What? Why not?" Puck asked, his hand down by his side but still in a fist.

"Yeah, Hudson. Why not?" Karofsky challenged him, face still contorted in anger.

Finn ignored him. "You don't want his blood on your hands."

Puck looked ready to contradict him, but Finn cut in again. "Just go home. We'll talk about it later."

None of them looked ready to vacate the area, but Finn's tone was unyielding.

"Whatever. I'm still talking to Shue."

And with that Puck pushed Artie out of the locker room, with Mike trailing behind, all three of them glaring at Karofsky.

Finn was aware of Karofsky's eyes on him even after the other guys had left. He unwillingly made eye contact.

"What?" he said, biting out the word.

Karofsky looked surprised and somehow… sad. All traces of anger were gone.

There were several seconds of silence.

"Why did you do that? You could have easily beaten the shit out of me. There were three and a half of you."

That was the final straw. "Artie's not half a person just because he can't walk." Finn was approaching him before he knew what he was doing, raising one hand up to punch him in the face and another hand to pin him to the lockers.

Karofsky's hands went up in immediate apology.

"I wasn't talking about Artie!" Finn stopped cold. Karofsky smirked. "Not that I was concerned about you taking me in a fight, because let's face it, you're too nice. I would win by default."

"Who were you talking about then?"

"Chang. Guys about as threatening as my 85 year old grandma. And she's bed-ridden."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh.' Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to judge."

"Just because you weren't insulting Artie doesn't make it OK. And what do you know about not judging people, anyway? You heard us. Kurt transferred because of you. Because of our fucked up school that allowed you to be here and forced him out just for being himself."

"It's a dog-eat-dog world. Stand out and you get beaten down. He had it coming." That look was back in his eyes again, that sad, deadened look that made Finn so uncomfortable that he almost had to turn away.

Finn never chided himself that he was really that smart. But there were moments where it felt like he could just read people. Maybe it came partially from growing up with just his mom and learning that it was OK to talk about feelings and stuff (but he quickly figured out not to do this too much with guys his age).

"What was it about him that made you so uncomfortable?"

"Excuse me?" Karofsky was attempting to get that angry look back on his face. His safety mask. Hide the deadened stare. Revolt.

It wasn't working.

"There was obviously something about him, him in particular that made you torture him so much. I've seen what you do to others. To me. Slushies, name calling, stupid shit that I bet a two year old could think up. But it's not enough, is it? So you go after Kurt. All of the worst bullying for Kurt. Shoving him into the lockers, threatening him. Throwing him into the dumpsters like a piece of trash for something that he can't even control.

"Do you know how much you fucked him up?" Finn's voice tore out of him, a jagged growl empowered by his fury and his guilt over not helping Kurt when it truly mattered, and now it was too late. He could feel pricks of moisture in the corners of his eyes. He blinked them away.

He expected Karofsky to punch him in the face or scream at him or at least turn around and walk away. He didn't do any of them.

The dead look in his eyes spread over his whole face and down his body. He was practically crumbling in front of Finn, this hollow, empty shell of a boy struggling to become a man.

It was terrifying.

Karofsky sounded like he was struggling to keep his breathing even. His eyes were still trained on Finn, but they were unseeing. Finn wondered briefly if he could just leave. Karofsky probably wouldn't even notice.

The air seemed to be ringing with Finn's harsh words, "fucked him up" echoing in his ears.

"I never wanted to hurt you," Karofsky mumbled to himself, still staring past Finn. The words were colored with remorse and a sort of tenderness, both of which were foreign coming out of Karofsky's mouth.

Finn almost wasn't sure if he heard it. His own words were still replaying themselves, monstrous and so completely unlike anything Finn had ever heard himself say. It was just like when he had yelled "faggy" at Kurt over and over, but somehow these words seem worse because before his words had been driven by anxiety and now they had come from somewhere angry and violent.

Maybe Finn mixed up their tone of voice. There was no way that the violence was coming from him, and this broken apology (was that the right word for this?) came from Dave Karofsky.

"Well you did. Hurt him," Finn said, softer this time.

Karofsky snapped back, mask on. "Fuck you, Hudson. He started it."

And just like that, the moment was over.

AN: Originally going to be a one-shot, but it didn't want to end how I had planned. So, multiple chapters! Not sure how many yet.