Written for this prompt on the fluff meme: So as some of the newer scenes have shown, the Warblers and Kurt are actually pretty good friends, because seriously they voted unanimously for him to sing that duet at Regionals. I would just love to see how they bonded.
Maybe some of them think the coal mine joke is hilarious, he fixes one of their cars, gives them girl advice, idek. I just want some rad bromance between Kurt and the prep school guys.
A/N: So, it appears I should really stay away from fluff, as some of these turned out really angsty. Ah well, I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. I wish I did, but I don't.
Five Reasons Why the Warblers Love Kurt Hummel
1. He's funny.
If there's one thing David doesn't like about being a Warbler, it's the fact they take everything so darn seriously. He's not exactly the class clown, but he really wishes Wes would lighten up on occasion. David loves the guy, really, but sometimes he acts like he has that precious gavel of his shoved up his ass.
So when the new kid, Kurt, starts things off with a joke about cats and coal mines, David wants to laugh, he really does. But when he looks around and sees the (hilarious) bemused faces of the rest of the Warblers, he decides it's safest to just bite the inside of his cheek and look down at the papers on his desk.
This kid's gonna be all right.
2. He's great with cars.
"C'mon, Baby, don't do this to me!" Wes turns the ignition again, but to no avail. She just won't start. He wants to slam his head against the dashboard and weep. If his baby dies, he doesn't know what he'll do. The gorgeous BMW 5 Series Sedan had been his first gift for his sixteenth birthday. She's only a year old, damn it! Why is the universe so cruel?
His train of thought is interrupted by a tapping noise. It's that new kid, Kurt, rapping on the driver's side window. Wes sighs. What does he want now? It's not that he doesn't like the kid; it's just that his timing freaking sucks.
He rolls down the window. "What do you want, Kurt?" It comes out a little snappier than he intended it to, but there's nothing he can do about that now.
Kurt's confidence visibly slips. "I was just wondering if you were all right. As you can see –" He holds his hands out, gesturing at the empty parking lot "- Everybody else left a while ago."
Wes lets out an exasperated puff of air. "Car trouble. I'm fine."
He expects Kurt to take off, maybe after a few words of sympathy, but instead a bright smile lights up his face. "I can help with that!" Wes's expression must be betraying the disbelief he feels, because Kurt continues indignantly. "I mean it! My dad owns a garage. I've been helping out there since I was eight."
So, Wes concedes to let him check under the hood. Can't hurt, right?
Five minutes later, Kurt closes the hood and says "Try it now."
Wes does. The engine purrs. His baby is going to live another day!
Kurt Hummel is a freaking prince.
3. He gives good relationship advice.
Thad, as smart as he may be, has never been good with girls. Whenever he's around them, his tongue ties itself into a knot and his hands start shaking like he's swallowed a whole bottle of caffeine pills. Apparently girls don't tend to go for guys who act like blithering idiots.
It is also a bit of a problem that he's constantly surrounded by boys who are taller, more confident and better-looking than himself (he's very comfortable with his sexuality, so he can admit that Dalton is home to some serious babe-magnets).
He's pretty much resigned himself to the fact that even the gay guys get more girls than him and he's going to spend the rest of his life a bachelor when he meets Kurt Hummel. Kurt who wears things Thad never would've thought existed; who uses enough hair spray to rival Blaine; who can reach notes so high he's surprised the windows in the choir room don't shatter. Kurt who apparently gives great advice about heterosexual relationships despite the fact he'll never be in one.
"I know girls," Kurt tells him, after ambushing him and dragging him out for coffee. "I've spent my whole life around them."
So Thad listens to him. His advice is stuff like "Talk to them, don't stare at them. If you want to get a girl's attention, you're going to have to speak up." It's stuff that's so simple, but makes a world of difference.
He takes Kurt's advice and uses it. One week later, he starts dating Aly.
If they get married, he's totally making Kurt his best man.
4. He gives good compliments.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are the spitting image of Joseph Gordon-Levitt?"
Nick just laughs it off when Kurt says this. That guy's a big movie star and he's just . . . well, he's just Nick. Nick the Nobody, as they used to call him at his old school. Nick the Nobody-cares. Nick the Nothing.
He's never been called that at Dalton, of course. He's not sure what happens if someone breaks the no-bullying rule (nobody he knows has ever dared to try), but he's sure it can't be good. So no, people don't call him Nick the Nobody anymore. But sometimes he wonders if they're thinking it.
Most of the time, he feels like he's invisible; a ghost wandering the halls. Who would notice if he disappeared forever? He's just a figure lurking in the background. Even joining the Warblers didn't help hid confidence much. He's still too shy to say a word to anybody.
So, when Kurt sits down next to him and gives him a compliment out of the blue, he laughs it off. He's still just Nick the Nobody.
But Kurt keeps shooting him compliments, day after day. "I like your shoes," "You sounded really great in rehearsal today," "Your presentation in English was exquisite."
Nick doesn't understand it. Why compliment him, of all people? He's not special. He's not anything.
But they keep coming. One day, when they're in the hall, Kurt tells him that his hair looks exceptionally good today, and Nick finally works up the courage to ask why.
Kurt looks at him, his big, blue eyes staring into Nick's brown ones. His voice is soft when he speaks. "I understand how alone you can feel in a school full of people. At my old school, there were so many days when I would have given anything to have someone to tell me they liked the shirt I was wearing, or that my hair looked nice." He goes quiet for a moment. "I just wanted you to know, I'd notice."
"Huh?"
"If you disappeared. I'd notice." Any reply Nick might have had to that is cut off, because it's at that moment that Kurt turns into the nearest classroom and walks inside.
That afternoon, Nick asks that guy Jeff if he wants to come over and watch something stupid with a whole load of violence. Jeff seems surprised, but says he'd love to.
It's not much, but it's a start.
5. He knows what it is to truly accept oneself.
Alex absolutely hates Stacy Chapman. He hates the way he acts like he's better than everyone else; he hates the fact he's taller than Alex can ever hope to be; he hates his stupid blond hair that he obviously spends hours on every morning; he even hates his girly name.
But more than anything else, he hates the fact that he gets butterflies in his stomach every time he sees Stacy's stupid, handsome face. He hates the fact that he'll sometimes wake up from dreams about that bastard with sweat covering his body and tightness in that place between his legs.
He hates himself for feeling this way. Alex doesn't like boys. He can't like boys. He doesn't even want to think about how his dad would react if he found out his son was a . . . a . . .
And why did it have to be Stacy, anyway? It might not be so bad if it was Blaine, or Chris, or that new kid with the ultra-high voice (Kurt?). But no, it has to be Stacy freaking Chapman, the guy with stupid blond hair who's stupidly tall and has a stupid face that makes Alex's heart pound every time he sees it.
Sometimes (and this is really dumb), sometimes it all gets too much and he breaks down. The tears come and his stomach cramps up and he feels like nothing will be all right ever again.
Kurt finds him during one of these times. He's collapsed on the bathroom, floor during his lunch period, tears burning his cheeks like acid. He supposes he should be glad that it's Kurt who walks in, and not a jock (yes, Dalton has jocks. They're not as ignorant as they are at in most schools, but they're still jocks).
He expects the other boy to leave right away, but instead he kneels down, wraps his arms around Alex and lets him cry on his shoulder. ("It's fine," he says. "I've got a fresh shirt in my locker. Force of habit.")
He ends up blurting out everything through his sobs. Everything about Stacy; about his dad; about how much he hates himself. Everything. Once he starts he can't stop. He ends up yelling into Kurt's chest about how it's all so unfair, how everything's just gone to shit and he doesn't know what to do anymore. Throughout this, Kurt doesn't say a thing. He just keeps his arms around Alex; silent, but soft and warm and there.
Afterwards, Kurt helps Alex wash the tears off his face, and then walks him out of the bathroom (and Alex is so glad he picked the one furthest away from the lunch room, so nobody else walked in on him. Of course, there is the issue about why Kurt wasn't eating his lunch, but that's a worry for another day).
It's then that Kurt speaks. "It gets so much better, Alex. I swear it does."
It's those words Alex remembers when he comes out to his dad, to be met with open arms . It's those words he remembers when Stacy reaches out to take his hand in Warblers practice one day, holding it like it's the most normal thing in the world.
It's those words Alex remembers when he finally learns to accept himself for who he is.