Title: Nobody's Business
Rating: PG
Spoilers: A Very Glee Christmas
Warnings: discussion of domestic abuse
Pairings/Characters: Kurt, Finn
Word Count: 890

Summary: If Finn is calling to whine about Rachel and Santana again, Kurt might have to actually use his homework as an excuse to hang up. Trying to make sense of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires is more fun than listening to that, even if he has had "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" stuck in his head for a week.

Notes: Written for a prompt on the angst meme. I'm deanoning on a bunch of these this week, now that the lovely boysinperil has betaed them for me. :)

Kurt is on his third Diet Coke and sixth handful of Skittles, but still only the second page of his history paper, when his phone starts going off. He sits up quickly and scrambles off his bed, trying to dig the phone out of his bag before it goes to voicemail. "Hello?" he asks, not even glancing at who is calling.

The voice on the other line is very quiet. "Kurt?"

Kurt frowns. "Why are you whispering, Finn?"

"Because," Finn says, but he doesn't keep going.

Kurt lies back down on the bed, pulling his laptop towards him. "What's up?" he asks. It's late, after midnight, but Finn has been known to call at stranger times. He minimizes his history paper—it was time for a break anyway—and opens up the internet browser. It goes straight to , so Kurt's distracted by Paul Smith's new collection when Finn answers. He could totally pull off that mustard yellow.

"Do you think I should go say something?" Finn asks.

Kurt blinks. "Um, about what?" he asks, trying to pretend he's been listening this whole time.

"About them fighting."

"Wait. Who's fighting?" Kurt asks. If Finn is calling to whine about Rachel and Santana again, Kurt might have to actually use his homework as an excuse to hang up. Trying to make sense of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires is more fun than listening to that, even if he has had "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" stuck in his head for a week.

Finn isn't calling about his own relationship troubles, though. "Mom and Burt," he says. "They're yelling."

Kurt frowns. "Yelling at you?" He doubts that, though, since Finn's talking to him. They've been pushing 'family togetherness,' but calling Kurt so he can hear Finn get lectured would be a bit much.

"No, they're yelling at each other." He sounds annoyed.

"Oh," Kurt says. "Um…" He's not sure what Finn wants from him.

"Should I go do something?" Finn asks again. "I mean, Burt's kinda—"

"Kind of what?"

"I dunno. He just gets really mad, y'know?"

Kurt stares at his laptop, but he's not really seeing the screen anymore. "Couples fight, Finn," he finally says. "That's… that's normal." Kurt's pretty sure it's normal, anyway. He doesn't have much more experience with having two parents than Finn does.

Finn sounds annoyed again. "I know that. I want to know if I should go do something about it. The last time Burt got mad at me he kicked me out."

"And what? You think he's going to kick Carole out of the house? They're married."

"He hit Karofsky that day at school when he got mad," Finn says.

It takes Kurt a minute to make the connection. "You think Dad's going to hit her?" he asks incredulously.

"I don't know! That's why I called. He wouldn't, would he?"

"I… No. No," Kurt repeats. "Why would you even think that?" He's torn between anger on his dad's behalf and disbelief that he's even having this conversation. Finn knows his dad. Finn lives with his dad. How could he even think that his dad is the type of guy that would hit his wife?

"I dunno," Finn says. "I just…" He sighs. "I don't know. Sometimes guys seem really nice, y'know, but they aren't. And it's not like Burt's never hit anyone before. We both saw him hit Karofsky at school."

"That was different," Kurt says immediately. "He was worried about me. He's not violent or anything." He sighs. "Finn, you know him. He's not like that."

"I know," Finn says. "I was just worried. They're still yelling."

"What are they even fighting about?"

"I don't know."

Kurt bites his lip, kicking his feet against the bed. "What do you mean, 'sometimes guys seem nice?'"

Finn's quiet for a bit, but Kurt can hear him breathing into the phone still. "Y'know, just sometimes they're not as nice as they seem."

"Are we talking about any guy in particular?"

There's another long pause before Finn finally says, "Just this one jerk Mom dated for a while. It was a long time ago."

"Oh," Kurt says. "I—"

Finn cuts him off. "I'll let you go. I've gotta get to school early tomorrow."

Kurt wasn't sure what to say anyway. "I'm sorry" sounds stupid and doesn't seem like nearly enough, so he just says, "Okay."

"I'll call you later."

"Hey," Kurt says, before Finn can hang up. "Don't worry about Dad and Carole, alright? I'm sure it's nothing and it'll be fine tomorrow."

"Yeah," Finn says. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"Bye."

Kurt says goodbye and waits for Finn to hang up before hitting the end call button on his phone. He looks at the thumbnails of colorful coats on his monitor for a moment before closing the window. He should work on his history paper some more, since it's due tomorrow afternoon.

Kurt rolls over onto his back and stares up at the ceiling. His thoughts are all focused on the conversation he just had—or didn't have, as the case may be—with Finn. The idea of anyone hurting Carole or Finn like that makes him feel sick. He's pretty sure his stomach-ache isn't caused by the pop and candy.

Kurt remembers what Carole said at the wedding, "You saved me," and wonders just how literal that was.