Title: Make This Town Feel Okay
Fandom: Glee
Rating: Teen to be safe.
Pairing: Kurt/Glee Club (friendship) Finn/Kurt (pre-slash/friendship)
Chapter: 1/1
Word Count: 1668
Summary: After their threat in 'Theatricality,' Azimio and Karofsky try to make good on their promise. Unfortunately for them, the Glee club also make good on theirs.
Notes: Takes place Post-'Funk,' but before Regionals.
Make This Town Feel Okay
No matter what they say, don't believe a word
The first time it happens, he's still riding the high from nationals and his normal sense of perception must be dulled, because he certainly can't remember seeing Azimio and Karofsky until his head is bouncing off of the lockers.
"Hey, Hummel. How's it going?"
"Why do you care, Neanderthals?" he replies frostily, pushing himself upright.
"What'd he call us, man?"
"A Neanderthal's like a fish, isn't it?" came a voice from behind the two jocks, and they split apart enough that Kurt can see Brittany, tilting her head to the side and obviously deep in thought.
"A Neanderthal is a caveman, Brit," Santana informs her before pushing her way through the boys and standing beside Kurt, linking his arm through hers. Brittany follows suit and soon the two girls are flanking him, Santana looking defiant and Brittany looking, as usual, lost.
"Oh. I still think it sounds like a fish," Brittany replies.
"Anyway, you two had better skedaddle. Unless you wanna deal with Coach Sylvester for picking on her championship-winning squad," Santana does that vaguely bird-like head thing she's so fond of. "Right, Kurt?"
"Alright, alright," Azimio backs off first. "Whatever, girls," he includes all of them in this. "Just cause you won a stupid talent show."
"Yeah, we did!" Brittany looks amazed by this, and Kurt can't resist a parting jab at the jocks.
"And how many football games did you win last season? Oh, right. One. Because of me. Let's go, girls," he turns smartly on his heel, Santana and Brittany still clinging to him, and they make their way down the hall.
There's a drug in the thermostat to warm the room up,
And another around to help us bend your trust
The second time it's back to predictable, and Kurt is nearly on his way into the dumpster, brand new Marc Jacobs jacket and all, before they're stopped.
"Yo, uncool, dudes. Way uncool."
"Puckerman," Karofsky spits in Puck's general direction. "What? It's not enough he's got Hudson on his creepy gay side, now he's dragged you into it, too?"
"Put him down."
"Or what?"
Puck cracks his knuckles almost nonchalantly as Mike and Matt wander up, and Kurt gets placed nearly gently on the ground. Puck pulls him over and slings an arm over his shoulders, causing Kurt to tense, but he knows the other boy won't hurt him.
"You okay, dude?"
"Fine. Thank you."
"Look, what Finn said goes for me, too, alright? You lay a hand on him, you're gonna pay for it. Clear?" Puck glances menacingly at the jocks, who glare right back, and Kurt thinks he'd better get clear before fists start to fly and he's caught in the middle. Luckily Quinn walks by at that moment and takes his hand, drawing him away from the impending battlefield. Puck gives him a pat on the shoulder on the way past and announces, "It's on."
"Nice day, isn't it?" Quinn shouts over the noise of the scuffle.
"Lovely, Quinn Fabray. And how are you this fine morning?"
"Wishing the father of my baby wasn't about to get himself suspended," she mutters darkly. "I know she's a girl, but I worry sometimes about her getting his attitude."
"Puck's alright," Kurt concedes, and Quinn laughs.
"I bet at the start of the year you never thought you'd admit that," she has to point out.
"Well, to be fair, at the start of the year I never thought you'd talk to me, either."
"Times change, huh?" she lays a hand on her belly and smiles. "Come on, though. We'll be late."
Kurt takes her hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze before they head into the school.
We're the lifers here 'til the bitter end, condemned from the start
The third time he's in the music room trying to figure out why his Hermes scarf won't tie properly when they enter, but barely a second behind them Rachel flounces in, steps boldly in front of Kurt, starts off her speech with her patented, "I have two gay dads," and proceeds to tell them far more than even Kurt wanted to know about 'homosexual intercourse,' as she puts it.
Luckily Mr. Schue also stops by before they can throttle her and they high-tail it out of there, causing Rachel to turn and smile smugly at Kurt.
"Thank you," he says honestly, and she beams at him.
"Anything for a team-mate. And, you know, you stood up for me. When Jesse…" she shrugs. "I figured I owed you one."
"Rachel, I insulted you."
"Whatever," she waves it off and smiles at him. "It made me realize something, Kurt: we're not so different. And I've never had to wash egg out of my hair before, but I know you have. And then I thought about the other things those jocks did to you…"
"Pee balloons," Kurt reminds her.
"Yes. Well," she clears her throat. "I realize that perhaps in some aspects we're too alike to get along flawlessly, but regardless, we're both insanely talented and the Club could only benefit from us working together."
Kurt looks at her for a few seconds, finally getting the knot right on the scarf, and nods. "Right. We are both fabulous, so no sense in fighting over it."
"Excellent! Oh, and Kurt…can I ask you something?"
"Depends," he decides, thinking that 'friends' did in no way mean 'best friends.'
"What you said that day…about my room? You're right. Now that I know who my mother is, I no longer need to mourn my lost childhood and think about how she would have decorated my room. And, knowing Mom and her penchant for black, I doubt hot pink would have been what she'd have chosen regardless," Rachel says vaguely.
"You want me to re-decorate your room," Kurt guesses.
"Oh, would you?" she's nearly bouncing, and Kurt can't say 'no' to her now. Even though, inevitably, she's going to end up with Finn and he won't, he's wizened up enough to see that sometimes you just can't win.
"Of course."
She smiles and takes his arm, mouth running a mile a minute as they head to the parking lot.
'Cause I'll keep singing this lie if you'll keep believing it
The fourth time they go back to the old 'slushie-in-the-face' method, but obviously sloppiness is setting in as they attempt it between classes and he's walking with Mercedes, Artie and Tina at the time.
Mercedes shouts something to the effect of "You are not harassing my man Kurt anymore!" and goes off on them, Tina joining in (because, Kurt reflects, Tina's kind of scary, too) and soon enough the ruckus calls enough teachers out that Azimio and Karofsky pretend drinking their slushies was their plan all along.
Mercedes and Tina look pleased with themselves as they continue, all traces of their temporary blow-out gone, and Artie turns to Kurt, shrugs helplessly, and mouths, "Girls."
Kurt doesn't understand why he finds it so funny, but he's laughing nonetheless.
I need to keep you like this in my mind,
So give in or just give up
The fifth time they've gotten smarter, and Kurt's just leaving the corner store with the milk his dad asked for when he registers a fist headed for his face. He tries to bring the shopping bag up to block it but the expected hit never comes, and he cautiously opens his eyes and lowers the milk.
"Dudes, how many times do I have to tell you to leave him alone?"
"Ooh, protecting the boyfriend, eh, Hudson?"
"Just leave him alone. There's gotta be better things you can do with your time. Like getting better at football," Finn adds, glaring at them from his, Kurt has to admit, rather imposing height. "C'mon, Kurt. Let's go home. And I don't think you wanna follow us," he threw over his shoulder. "Kurt's dad is even scarier than me when he gets angry."
Kurt glances once more but they're heading the other direction, and he breathes a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Finn."
"Of course. I just wish they'd learn, y'know?"
"As I've stated before, they're painfully under-evolved both physically and emotionally. I think you'd have better luck training a dog," he mutters, and Finn chuckles beside him. He and Kurt are slowly getting back to where they were before his…unfortunate choice of words to describe their shared bedroom, but sometimes there's still this void between them; this strange awkwardness they'd never had, even before they were friends.
Kurt, of course, has noticed it, too, but he's decided not to worry about it. Besides, even if the eventual outcome of this situation is his father and Finn's mother staying together or…maybe…getting married, he and Finn wouldn't be together forever. And, to be honest, Finn would make a pretty cool brother.
"You need anything else or are we just heading back?" Finn asks after a time. He and Kurt's dad have since reconciled and Burt has let the younger man into the house again, at least after Kurt reverted the basement to its former state of pristine white and grey.
"Back. The milk'll spoil."
"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that," Finn looks embarrassed, and Kurt sighs. Some things will never change. "But hey, don't worry about them, alright? I meant what I said, and I won't let them hurt you."
"I know. And thank you." Kurt was going to give a speech about how he's perfectly capable of fighting his own battles, thank you very much, but he realizes that that's what he's been doing almost his entire life, and maybe…just this once…it'll be nice to have other people help fight them.
"Anytime," Finn smiles at him before putting an arm around his shoulders, and Kurt freezes at the contact for a second before relaxing into the loose embrace.
They stay like that the whole way home.
Take our tears, put 'em on ice
'Cuz I swear I'd burn this city down to show you the light
Notes: First Glee fic ever! As such, characterization is probably way off, but it generally takes me a while to write characters comfortably, so I hope I did alright, for a first try. This is part of a larger multi-fandom song-fic thing I'm working on, but it got a little out of hand so I decided to post it as a one-shot instead of waiting until I was finished all of the other ones.
The song, should anybody wish to listen, can be found here: www(.)youtube(.)com/watch?v=8Db8ALVnygI
Also, reviews are always appreciated!