Glee – Us against the World

Summary: After Santana accidentally outs herself at school her life becomes hell. Kurt refuses to let her face the Jocks alone and returns to McKinley. Will contain both Het and Slash. Klaine, possible Brittana and others.

AN: This is my idea of why Kurt would return to McKinley when essentially nothing has changed there. Even if he doesn't feel like he fits in at Dalton I don't think that he would return without a darn good reason while Karofsky is still there (or that his dad would let him). Do to some recent spoilers I'm currently guessing that something similar to this might occur on the show soon but I guess we'll see if I'm right (or completely wrong) when it starts back up again in April.

I love the idea of a good Kurt/Santana friendship so this is my attempt at writing one; we'll see how it goes.

Placement wise this occurs after the episode 'Original Song' and before a 'Night of Neglect' (as it hasn't come out yet and I have no idea what's going to happen there) and so is AU after regionals.

Warnings for Slash and Het. Mentions of bulling in various forms, mentions of suicide.

Disclaimer: No I don't own Glee.

Note: as of 10/05/11 this chapter has been edited to correct some wording and grammer errors that were missed in the original posting.

Chapter 1

Santana stormed through the halls like a girl on a mission. Of course the mission at the moment was mostly just about getting as far away from the boy behind her as quickly as possible right now but still.

She didn't want to do this right now. It was too much, on top of everything else; everything that she'd had to deal with over the last few days...no...months, years even. The boys always just wanting her for sex and her letting them use her because it was easier that way. Her half-hearted attempt to use Sam to get back at Quinn for being so high and mighty all the time and having everyone love her for it even though she was just the same as Santana at heart, willing to do just about anything to be popular and in charge. Confessing to Brittany and being rejected.

Oh how that hurt. It hurt. It hurt.

After finally admitting the depth of her true feelings to herself and Santana knew she couldn't go back to the way she'd been before. Looking back on it all only made her more disgusted at herself. What had she been trying to prove really? Her actions had made sense at the time but now it all just seemed so stupid. Maybe if she hadn't done all that Brittany would have said it back? Maybe it was her own fault that Brittany didn't love her?

And now Sam (who actually wasn't that bad a guy and hadn't pressed her for sex even though she'd offered and hadn't really complained about the way she kept lashing out at him because she hurt and he was there reminding her of all her faults and everything she'd done wrong) wanted to talk about their relationship (but he was still a guy and she was realizing that even that one fact had suddenly become too much for her to handle right now).

It was all just too much. She had to go. She didn't want to talk. Getting away from him was her best option because if she had to face him now- well she wasn't quite sure what she'd do but she was pretty she that she'd regret it.

"Will you just hold up for a sec?" Sam jogged a few paces to catch up to her. "I think we need to talk or something. You've been acting like…I don't even know," he huffed as he followed her around another corner. "It's like you don't even like me. So I think we should- will you just stop for a sec?"

He'd finally gotten close enough that he'd managed to lightly grasp her elbow on that last line and she instantly whipped around, flinging his hand off in the process, she did not want a boy touching her right now. That touch was the last straw. All the jumbled and confused emotions she'd been trying to suppress, that tight ball of agony in her chest that she'd been trying so desperately to ignore, exploded in one giant wave of uncontrollable fury.

"You think I don't like you? Well give the blond a cookie," She sneered. "I don't. Not one iota. I don't want you to touch me. I don't even want you anywhere near me. You want to break up? Consider us over you fish mouthed male." She snarled. "All you boys are the same; disgusting creatures that only care about shoving your dicks into the nearest warm body. Well I'm sick and tired of putting up with it! You and all of the stupid, insipid men like you can just shove off!"

The poor boy just gapped at the outraged latina in shock even as her finger jabbed painfully into his chest. He knew their relationship hadn't been going well lately (well it never really had) but he had no idea where this anger was coming from. As far as he knew he'd done nothing to deserve it but the latina had just gone and verbally ripped his head off, obviously not caring that they were in the middle of a crowded hallway. He had no idea what was going on and all he could do was stare at her as her body trembled in place before him.

Santana's face was still flushed from her outburst only moments before but she couldn't hold back the tears that suddenly welled up in her eyes. The emotions were to raw, to votile, and now that the words had started pouring out of her she couldn't reel them back in if she wanted too. It felt good to get it out, off her chest, though she did feel a bit bad about dishing it out on Sam the one guy here who least deserved it.

She wasn't sure if it was the pressure of the emotions or some subconscious desire to apologize, to explain, that made her say what she did next.

Her voice dropped to no more than a whisper, but in the dead silence of the hallway it rang out loud and clear. "The only person in this whole damn school," she stared straight into his eyes as the confession spilled from her lips, "that is worth a damn, is the one girl who refuses to love me back."

s s s s s s s

The confrontation had occurred just before school got out on Monday. By Tuesday morning everyone knew that Santana Lopez, former cheerio, had dumped Sam Evans, alternate quarter back, because she was in love with a girl. Not just fooling around with one to get with guys like she used too, but in love.

She was a lesbian.

Santana hadn't even gotten to her first class when Karofsky threw a slushy in her face.

She'd never been slushied before. Despite being one of the gleeks she'd always been protected by her well known status as a cheerleader who didn't mind fooling around, even after leaving the team, and so she'd never had to experience the horror the other glee kids had described. She'd always kind of thought they'd exaggerated how bad it was, of course it would suck, but she'd never even imagined that it would be this bad.

It felt like she'd been bitch-slapped by an iceberg.

It honestly hurt, and that wasn't even adding in the burning feeling that was the corn syrup in her eyes or the absolutely gross sensation of having a freezing, sticky, drink sliding down her skin and under her clothes. It was everywhere.

And no description could have prepared her for just how pathetic it made her feel.

Just one iced drink, and in less than two seconds it had moved her from fairly high on the school's totem pole to the absolute bottom. She could literally feel it. As that drink of ice and corn syrup had smashed into her face it had also crashed right through what was left of her reputation and the last of the respect the jocks had held for her dripped off her skin and fell to the floor with it into a cold, dirty, puddle.

But one thought screamed through her head louder than anything else.

This was the beginning of her destruction.

s s s s s s s

She was right. Everything she had feared seemed to be coming to pass. These jerks had harassed Kurt to the point that he'd had to leave the school entirely and now that blind hatred was turning on her.

Slushies had just been the start. Her locker had been broken into multiple times. The first time her books had been destroyed, the others she had discovered 'presents' in the form of insulting notes or nasty pranks such as Coach Sylvester's 'dirt trick.' She hadn't been able to eat lunch all week because someone would always knock her tray out of her hands, usually into her face. She hadn't been dumpster tossed yet but several of the jocks had taken to dumping trash cans over her head. Slurs and insults where tossed her way constantly. She was shunned by anyone even remotely popular unless they were harassing her and being 'knocked accidentally' was becoming more and more common.

It was hell.

The glee kids weren't much help either. She'd never really tried to make friends there, had never really thought she'd need them and her recent attitude had pushed them even farther away than normal, and now it was coming back to bite her in the ass. Oh, they didn't ignore her newfound introduction into being 'outcast #1,' several of the girls had helped her clean up after the slushies or the trash-dumps, but they didn't exactly go out of their way to help her either.

She guessed they figured she deserved it a little bit, not for her sexuality, but for all the times she'd ignored or mocked their own suffering.

It was already getting to her. She tried to put on a brave face for school but she'd spend more time crying this week than she had since she was five. She had no clue when she'd gotten this weak. She was supposed to be stronger than this. She was a bitch damn it! She wasn't supposed to let all of this crap get top her. Oh, she'd known it would take its toll, that her reputation would go to hell and they'd all start treating her like garbage, she knew it would be hard (and it was) but she hadn't expected it to be this bad.

Mostly because she'd never anticipated having to do this alone.

Oh, she was glad that Brittany wasn't going through this too, she loved the other girl far too much even if Brittany couldn't love her back the way she wanted, but it was the loneliness of it all that was really killing her. The knowledge that she was the only one at that school that this was happening too.

She had no idea how Kurt had dealt with it as long as he had. It was awful.

And she'd only been dealing with it for a week.

Yet she couldn't bring herself to think of transferring away like he had. Her folks defiantly had the money (her Dad was a doctor) so that wasn't an issue, but she refused to leave Brittany. Even if the other girl didn't love her the same way she was still Santana's best (and maybe only real) friend. They had been together since they where children, with Santana watching out for her often oblivious companion. Brittany was sweet as anything and often got confused easily so it was easy for others (especially stupid boys) to take advantage of her. Santana refused to leave the girl on her own and let that happen, not for anything. Besides, Kurt had managed to deal with this for years. She remembered the things the jocks had done to him as far back as elementary school and it had certainly only gotten worse with time. In comparison what she'd faced so far was nothing. She shouldn't be complaining when she knew he'd gone through more than this, she only had to hang on for a little over a year, just till graduation, and then she'd be fine.

Yeah, she'd be fine.

She just wasn't sure how to handle it until then.

s s s s s s s

Kurt was outlining his latest essay for his literature class in one of Dalton's many small study areas. The work at Dalton was a lot more complicated that what had been required at McKinley and the teachers expected the students to do in depth research and use outside sources for every assignment if they wanted to earn good grades. So he often stayed late on campus to finish his class work since in the end it was easier to stay here, where he could run to the library or hunt down a classmate if he realized a topic needed elaboration, rather than driving all the way home right away and be unable to produce work that was 'up to par.' Sometimes it sucked, it certainly cut down on the time he was able to spend with his friends from McKinley, but it wasn't all bad by staying late on campus he had been able to form new friendships with some of the Dalton boys and got to spend quite a bit more time with Blaine.

A happy smile crossed his face at the thought of his boyfriend. They'd been together for nearly a month now (they had just past the three week mark) and everything was going swimmingly. They'd had their first official date two days after they'd gotten together and it had been amazing. They'd gone ice skating (Blaine had insisted that it was the perfect thing to do before spring truly set in and they'd ended up having a lot of fun at the near empty rink), gotten dinner at a small but lovely Italian restaurant outside Columbus and then taken a romantic stroll (it was kind of cold but that meant they got to cuddle more) around the Dalton campus looking at the stars.

Not that that had been their only date, they'd also caught a movie together and gone to see a local production of Into the Woods as well as their regular coffee meets and outing with their friends. Getting together with Blaine had really shown Kurt just how big a difference there was between Dalton and McKinley though. While of course his friends from New Directions had been happy to hear that Kurt had finally gotten his man he knew that everyone else at McKinley would be just the opposite, harassing them and ripping them down. Here at Dalton the worst comments they got were some dirty teasing and everyone, especially the Warblers, seemed to be genuinely happy for them.

Sometimes it felt like he was living in a fantasy world, attending Dalton, but he didn't regret coming here. Yes, there were some things he missed and initially it had been a bit hard to get used to the differences but in the end it had all been for the best. Not only was he safer, Dalton had given him the time to find the peace of mind that McKinley had been slowly tearing away from him. He felt safe again, but not just that. He felt confident again. Finally being in a place where he didn't have to scream all the time, whether to be noticed by the right people or to attempt to fend off the wrong ones, he had been able to analyze, reevaluate, and in fact discover himself in ways he hadn't realized he needed to before.

Before it had all been about trying to express himself in spite of the world's adversity. Now, now it was just about being himself.

He wished he'd understood the difference back when he'd been at McKinley, it might have made everything he'd faced there easier to deal with.

"Hey Kurt! There's a girl down in the front hall who's looking for you." Surprised by the interruption he glanced up to see that Jeff had popped his head through the doorway to deliver the message. The blonde Warbler just gave a slight wave and then vanished back down the hall, probably to meet up with Nick for their usual 'gaming night'. They had it almost every week and often other students would join in but Kurt had opted out tonight in favor of getting his work done.

Intrigued, Kurt quickly packed up his stuff. Who had come to visit him? He assumed it was one of the girls from McKinley. However none of them had texted him and almost no one ever bothered to visit him at school so it was a little strange. It was probably Mercedes or Rachel though. They were the two he saw most often these days so it wouldn't be too out there for one of them to swing by. And if their phone had died that would explain the lack of a text, Mercedes had been complaining about her lack of battery life lately.

He strolled casually to the entrance hall, an anticipatory grin already on his face, only to freeze in shock upon his arrival. That wasn't Mercedes. Or Rachel. Hell, it wasn't even Tina.

Kurt took in the figure in shock. Nice black shoes with stockings. The stylish but modest dark blue dress. The medium length dark brown hair swept back with a simple headband. The face of the latina girl who had literally been the last person he'd expected to see.

"Santana?"

She turned to him and he could instantly see that something was…off…about her expression. The girl looked close to tears. While he had seen the latina break down before (when she was drunk or when Coach Sylvester had been particularly harsh) there was something different about this. He had always thought of Santana was one of those girls who only really cried when they were so beyond angry and frustrated at the treatment they were receiving that it came out as tears. He'd never really imagined this…sadness that seemed to be filling her now. It just seemed very out of place for the bitchy, confident girl he knew.

He approached her cautiously, not really sure how to handle this. Kurt just knew that something was very very wrong. She didn't respond. In fact she wasn't even looking at him, just standing there staring at her feet. She should be standing tall, throwing out insults or at least making sarcastic comments…but she wasn't doing any of that.

"Santana? What's wrong?"

He lifted a tentative hand to brush at her shoulder, His worry only increasing the longer she remained silent.

Without warning the brunette suddenly threw herself into his arms, clutching at his blazer as tears poured down her face. Kurt had absolutely no idea what was going on, this went against every perceived notion he'd ever had about the feisty latina, but he decided it didn't really matter. He and Santana Lopez had never really been friends but she was a glee mate and she was here now, literally crying on his shoulder, and that made her one of his girls. She'd come to him so he would be here for her.

He gently wrapped his arms around her in a loose hug. Rubbing soothing circles into her back he just stood there. Holding her. He would let her cry as long as she needed to and when she was ready she would talk. Kurt wasn't sure quite how long they ended up standing there, in reality it was probably only a few minutes though the time had seemed to stretch longer, until her breathing calmed and the tears stopped.

Santana was still clutching at his shirt like a lifeline and he had a passing thought about how crinkled it would be when she finally let go but this was one time when he genuinely couldn't care less about the state of his clothes, the girl in his arms was far more important.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, and he could feel it where her face was buried in his shoulder. The silence seemed loud around them but he didn't speak, just kept rubbing at her back. He'd give her all the time she needed.

"How did you do it Kurt?" The breathy, too shaky question eventually broke through the quiet.

"What?"

"How were you so strong? How did you face them every day? How did you keep going back for so long?" Her read puffy eyes finally rose to meet his for the first time since she'd shown up, her gaze pleading for an answer. "How where you still able to be so proud even when they kept tearing you down all the time?"

He wanted to reply but-"Why?" Why did she want to know so badly? Why did she suddenly need to? Santana had always been proud and confident. What could have reduced her to this scared creature in his arms?

"Everyone knows." She swallowed harshly and her word came out in a husky whisper. "They found out I'm gay."

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