Author's Notes: Written for the glee_angst_meme, the prompt: "Did you know that every 18 minutes, 1 person dies from suicide. And about 1/3 of those people were bullied because of their sexuality or gender identity? When you say "...so gay", that adds one more chance for that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender individual to crack. Enough is enough. A friendship fic involving Kurt and anyone (can even be ensemble) Preferably no pairings. Thanks :)"

A British Cigarette

She catches him staring at him as his scissors in the choir room.

"Kurt, hey," she says, and he can't help but think she sounds absolutely nothing like herself.

"What are you doing here, Rachel?" he says, wearing the best bitch face he can muster.

"Um, we have Glee?" she says, and okay, she has a point there. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you're on your own in the choir room, staring at a blade, about five minutes after you just heard yourself dismissed as British slang for a cigarette for what must be the millionth time?" she says, like it's obvious. He blinks, mostly because his British slang isn't a major focus of his mind, so it takes him a second to realize what she means. "I try to avoid that word, even when I'm just quoting someone," she explains.

He nods. "Rachel, I'm okay. Really. I wasn't going to..."

"I know," she says. "Doesn't mean you weren't thinking about it. You weren't about to do anything stupid, but I thought we should talk about it."

"I'm sorry, what do you have to do with this?" he asks, because he still doesn't like her, and doesn't want to talk about his personal issues. It takes him awhile to remember how dumb a question that was.

"What, you think I don't see things like this every day? You think I'm not always trying to answer the phone instead of my dads whenever it rings, just in case it's one of those calls? You reckon I haven't caught my daddy just staring at his razor after a particularly bad day? You think it doesn't break my heart when people tell me I'm an abomination; that they should never have been able to find a way to have me; that there should be laws against me?"

"...Okay, you win," he concedes. She smiles.

"That's not what it's about, Kurt. I just want you to be okay."

"But we hate each other."

"True," she says. "You have been unfailingly cruel to me for pretty much as long as we've known one another, but that's not the point. This matters to me, and yes, I am removing your individuality to some extent by this, but I also just want to help you."

"Really?"

Rachel sighs. "Every eighteen minutes, one person, somewhere in the world, commits suicide. A third of those were bullied because of their sexuality or gender identity. I want to make it better, and make sure that last 'so gay' I hear won't be the one that pushes someone over the edge."

Kurt nods. "This sucks."

"I know."

"Does it ever get any better? Like, for your dads, did it get better?"

Rachel sighs. "You get better at dealing with it, but it doesn't get better."

He nods. "Okay. Thanks," he says genuinely. "I still don't like you, and that skirt may cause Chernobyl levels of destruction, but thanks."

"I recognize the power of the straight ally, and embrace it whenever I can," she says.

He nods. The rest of the club starts filing in, but when they all seem to be assembled, it is noticed that two are missing.

"Where's Puck and Finn?" Tina asks.

"Principal's office. Started some fight with Karofsky; I'm not sure what it was about, but that guy's a douche, so I will bet cash money he deserved it," Artie says.

Somebody get the little fag away from our team, will ya?

Kurt smiles at that news. Rachel laughs and squeezes his hand.