A/N: Happy New Years everyone! I started this one shot about three weeks ago and just finished it tonight (yay!) It is for the incredible parimalik who requested a Warblers one-shot and a lot of the credit goes out to them for supplying most of the details. I think writing the Warblers is so fun because of how nutty everyone believes them to be (especially for preppy private school boys). I hope everyone enjoys, especially parimalik, and feel free to leave a review! :)
"Did you hear the new kid's voice? It's incredible!" Wes said.
"With him on our side there's no way we'll lose nationals."
The Warblers were all abuzz about the new boy who auditioned for them earlier that afternoon. His name was Toby, and even though he was a small, underdeveloped freshman, his voice packed a punch that no one had expected.
"He's technically not a Warbler, yet." Thad pointed out. "Every one of us had to go through traditional initiation, remember?"
"Yes, but that was when we still had Pavarotti. Now that the line of canaries has ceased to live on, we have no way to initiate him."
"I guess we'll just have to think of another way to do it."
The Warblers put their heads together to think of ways to put Toby through initiation.
"What if," Blaine suggested, "We find out his biggest fear and then help him overcome it?"
Everyone murmured in agreement, and suddenly their mission was in full swing.
At one point, two of the older Warblers pulled Toby aside and asked him if he was afraid of heights, to which he replied quizzical no. Later, Nick and Jeff brought a spider from outside and held it up to him, hoping to gauge a reaction. The boy only made a face and asked if there was any reason they were showing it to him, much to their disappointment. After many unsuccessful attempts to figure out Toby's secret fear, they decided to try horror movies.
The Warblers had all agreed to have a movie night in one of the dorms, with a few scary movies to put the experiment in place. Toby had shyly agreed to come, and Blaine and Kurt escorted him later on.
"Now, there's no reason to get scared." Kurt told him. "We are going to be watching scary movies."
"O-ok." Toby said warily.
As they entered into one of the Warbler's big dormitories, they were greeted by all the others. Nick clapped Toby on the back, jolting him forward because he was so small. Thad pulled out a stack of DVDs and started naming the ones off that the Warblers had agreed on.
"Alright, we've got 'The Grudge', 'Anaconda', and 'Saw'. Which one first?"
After a vote, it was decided that they would watch Anaconda first. They all piled onto the beds and on the floor, settled in for the movie, and most of them watched Toby out of the corners of their eyes. He looked to be a little nervous, which got them curious. When the anaconda first appeared on screen, Toby let out a tiny whine involuntarily. The heads of the Warblers around him turned and he hid his face. Letting it go the first time, they diverted their attention to the movie. He flinched a few more times whenever the snake would show up again, and eventually he was shaking so bad they turned off the movie and Wes told him to go get some air. Toby nodded and practically ran out of the room.
"I'll go check on him." Kurt said after a minute. "After all, I'm still a newbie too."
When he went out in the hall, he saw Toby leaning against the wall, arms around his legs.
"Toby, are you alright?"
Toby hesitated, and then shook his head. "I was just really scared."
"Were you scared because it's a horror movie?"
Toby gestured no again. "I-I'm afraid of snakes."
Kurt raised his eyebrows, surprised. "Oh, wow, I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault. I just wish I wasn't so scared."
"Why don't you go to your dorm and get some sleep. I'll tell the guys, I'm sure everyone will understand."
Toby smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Kurt."
Kurt smiled back in a friendly way and went back into the dorm where the rest of the Warblers were waiting impatiently.
"Well?" Trent prodded. "What did you find out?"
"He's not afraid of horror movies, guys." Kurt said. "He's afraid of snakes."
Some of the guys said, "Oh of course!" or "Why didn't I think of that?". They began planning on how to get Toby over his fears. First thing they would do was make sure the Warblers all had the day off from classes for "mandatory Nationals rehearsal". The next part would be to get Nick's brother to lend them his pet snake, so they could bring it in to show Toby. Someone would be in Toby's room beforehand so he couldn't run away, and the rest of the Warblers would come in with the snake and make him hold it, to get past his fears. It was the perfect plan.
The next day, their mission was in full force. The boys tiptoed down the hallway carrying a large cage with a python in it, giggling the whole way down until they knocked on the door.
On the inside, Jeff, who was making sure Toby didn't go anywhere by pretending to need help with homework, sat up straight and asked exaggeratedly, "I wonder who could that be?"
"Wha—" Toby was confused for a moment while the door opened and the boys all poured into his room. Wes walked straight over to the bed and plopped the cage down in front of Toby.
"What are you guys doing?" He wondered out loud, frightened.
"We," David explained. "Are going to help you conquer your fear of snakes!" He gave the small Warbler an encouraging smile and Wes opened the cage and pulled out the python.
"This, is Monty." He said, holding it out.
("Wait, wait, wait. Monty Python?" Kurt whispered disbelievingly to Blaine, who just patted Kurt's shoulder and shook his head.)
Toby shrieked in a high-pitched tone that even for a pre-pubescent boy was high. "Get it away! Please get it out!"
"Toby!" Wes tried calming him down and in doing so put the snake closer to him, causing another yelp to escape the small boy's lips.
Toby tripped backwards and fell on the bed, scrambling backwards and accidentally into Jeff's lap, much to Jeff's surprise. Toby didn't notice due to the fact that he was scared out of his mind. He started whimpering and the other boys noticed tears forming in his eyes.
"Hey, hey! It's okay." Blaine reassured him and put a hand on Toby's shoulder to calm him down. "You're much bigger than that little reptile and you have two more hands to fight back with, right?" he tried joking to make the mood lighter.
"B-but what if it b-bites me?"
"It won't. Look, he's friendly!" Blaine pointed at Wes who was playing with the snake and putting it around his neck.
"Trust me, I know where you're coming from." Trent said to the boy in a sympathetic tone. "When I was a small kid, I was terrified of lizards. I guess 'Godzilla' isn't a good movie to watch when you're six and have limited knowledge on reptiles, but I got over my fear when I was at the zoo and the zookeeper made me hold one. You might think it's stupid but it works, I promise!"
"Yeah," Wes chirped. "I used to be afraid of dogs! I couldn't go near them, not even the neighbor's lab who was the sweetest thing. But I soon realized that dogs didn't want to hurt me any more than I want to hurt them—and who wants to hurt cute puppies?"
"What does that have to do with me?" Toby asked wide-eyed.
"Well, it's the same with any animal. They only want to live in peace, and these guys are honestly harmless. If you want, you can hold him and see what you've been missing."
Toby bit his lip and pondered over what his fellow Warblers had said. After thinking hard about it, he nodded weakly and held his hands out.
"I want to hold him."
The Warblers cheered and patted him on the back, and Wes grinned widely and handed Monty the python over to Toby. Toby warily held it in his hands, holding it far away at first but then bringing it closer.
"Aww." He cooed. "You know, they're actually kind of cute when they're not ginormous and poisonous."
Everyone laughed and gathered around to watch him interact with the snake. He asked Wes if he could put it around his neck, to which he got a yes, and when he did the snake stuck its tongue out and brushed his cheek, making him giggle.
"Thank you guys a lot." He said once he was finally done playing with his new friend. "It means a lot that you guys would help me over my fear like this."
"Well, we had to officially initiate you somehow into the Warblers, and since we lost our last method of initiation after Pavarotti died in someone's care…" David jokingly motioned at Kurt, making him blush and hide his face.
"Hey, it wasn't my fault! Pavarotti had a stroke!"
"So," Toby said confused. "Does this mean I wasn't a Warbler before?"
Kurt scoffed, and put his arm around the boy. "Don't listen to them. Honestly they're crazy. We're crazy, and now you get to be a part of that, so welcome."
They all cheered again and hugged Toby, making him feel like one of them and like he belonged somewhere after all. He definitely knew that he was ready to be part of the craziness that were the Warblers.