"I HATE you!"
Kurt winced in his mind, feeling the impact of those words as though he'd been struck in the chest. Ow, he thought, able to see Todd crumble in place without even looking. Ow, ow, ow, ow.
He could hear the pathetic half-joking retort even before Todd's thin voice raised unsteadily to make it. "You sure it ain't a love-hate thing, sugar cakes?"
It wasn't obliviousness. It was damage-control. Kurt did wince this time at the slap that followed. It crackled around his ears, sharp enough to send his own face to stinging.
"Just stay AWAY from me! If I never saw your face again, you'd do me a service!"
"Shit," Kurt muttered. The noise in front of him stopped. He looked up to see Amanda frowning at him in concern. She touched his cheek and Kurt felt it sting in sympathy with Todd's but Amanda hadn't slapped him. She might have wanted to, but she never would. It wasn't the fact that she held back that was the problem. It was the reason.
"Maybe we should talk later. You're a bit too distracted for anything I say to matter." Amanda said. Her voice was gentle, but flat with disappointment. Kurt would have felt horrible, but it had been an argument he could have done without. He didn't mean to feel so grateful. Truly.
Wanda was walking off, and this time, Todd's bouncing step didn't follow her. "Wait --" Kurt heard a shaky voice start to call, but too softly for Wanda to hear. If she had, she didn't stop anyway. Todd's feet stayed put.
"Good," Kurt muttered, feeling bad for him but it was high time the boy started to take the hint. Wanda had brought a mall down on his head once. It hadn't even been personal.
Too late he realized what he'd said aloud and Amanda took back her hand. She sighed. "I'll see you later, Kurt." Kurt felt guilty as he watched her walk off quickly, not too quickly that he couldn't see her wiping at her eyes. Amanda hadn't been close to tears when she'd gotten up. Amanda didn't cry when she was irritated. Kurt liked to think he knew that much about her at least.
Despite the guilt, he remained unmotivated to follow her, although she wasn't walking so fast to give any sort of hint she didn't want him to. Unlike Wanda, who'd crashed through the trail and anyone unfortunate enough to be walking on it ahead of her. She left no hints, no little sighs that meant nothing at all when asked. When she didn't like something, she made sure it was not a mystery.
Kurt was fairly certain Todd didn't need hints, or being told, or even direct telepathic feed into his brain to realize Wanda didn't like him. He knew. Pretending he didn't was his only defense against it.
He liked to think he knew Amanda's reaction to things. But Todd's reactions were somehow a lot clearer to him just now. Without turning from the bench, Kurt could see Todd standing there, back slightly curved to lean over in a posture that screamed he didn't care, arms crossed over his chest to hold in the fact that it hurt like fucking hell. His sneakers inward, eyes staring down on them accusingly as if it were somehow the shoelaces that had been tripping him up all along. A jogger ran past, looking over his shoulder briefly, but kept running.
Todd uncrossed his arms and shoved his hands deep in his pockets. He started walking, but off the trail, kicking aside grass and clinging ivy in his way. Kurt got up off the bench and followed, not sure why he was eager to get a bloody nose or worse.
It was probably too late to pretend he hadn't seen everything. Todd had a way of being totally focused on one thing, yet somehow observant of everything else around him. He proved Kurt right, speaking over his shoulder without turning to see who was following.
"Yeah, you had a fight with Amanda, I know. You listened to mine instead of her, and now she's even more pissed. Ain't you tired of me fucking up your sex-life by now?" An oddly subtle way of telling Kurt to fuck off.
Kurt risked a bloody nose again by putting a hand on Todd's shoulder to stop him. The boy did, and Kurt didn't. He barely stopped himself from running into Todd's back, hand still in place and body inches away from his.
"You didn't do anything," he said awkwardly, stepping over the ivy to back up a little space. "I wasn't trying to listen."
"Like I care. The whole park heard. What you apologizing' for, dawg?
"I'm not apologizing."
"Then what do you want?" Todd sighed. His shoulder slumped down under Kurt's hand. Kurt gave it a reassuring squeeze. That made Todd look over it in surprise.
"To cheer you up. You could use it after all that," Kurt finally said, after several abortive attempts to try and make that sound manlier in his head. Todd reached up a hand and Kurt felt his fingers touch his own, probably to brush Kurt's hand off. But Todd didn't. His fingers hovered there, uncertainly, barely touching Kurt's fur.
"I don't need pity-friends," Todd muttered. But he didn't push Kurt away and he didn't look Kurt in the face when he said it.
"How about just a friend?" Kurt asked softly. The corners of Todd's mouth seemed at war, trying first to become a sneer, then a grimace, then a genuine smile. They finally produced a wan smirk, before Todd looked away again, flushing. He didn't say anything, probably at a loss for words for the first time Kurt had ever known him to be.
"Sure," he finally got out, though it was so quiet Kurt had to strain to hear. "If you ain't to busy doin' damage-control with your girl."
"I'm not even sure what got damaged," Kurt tried to joke.
"Ain't that the way of it?" Todd muttered. "Chicks. Always flyin' off the handle at somethin'."
"If they have handles to begin with," Kurt added under his breath.
Todd mumbled something, scratching the back of his neck. Kurt took that as a cue to let go of his shoulder. Todd finally turned around and looked up at Kurt, slightly annoyed the elf was still taller than him. He'd grown over the summer - all legs, but it was something.
"You're better with this romance thing than I am, dawg," he muttered, brushing imaginary lint off his sleeve. Kurt followed his fingers as they went from pulling loose threads to adjusting his wrist-bracers evenly. "You think I still got a chance?"
"Um." Kurt faltered, knowing Todd knew the answer to that but not sure what the boy wanted to hear.
"With anyone," Todd said quickly, trying to cover up after a brief silence. "Anyone at all."
"Why the hell not?" Kurt said, without hesitation this time. "You've been wasting all your time with the wrong person. That's not your fault."
"But what do I gotta change?" Todd muttered, fishing for cigarettes he knew weren't in his pocket. He came up with a bent and torn piece of filter and shoved it right back in with a curse.
"Seriously? Nothing. You shouldn't feel like you have to be anyone else."
"Like you and Amanda?" the smaller teen snorted. At Kurt's sudden silence, Todd looked up. He registered Kurt's expression and groaned. "You're shittin' me. I thought she was after the fur and all. What's she wantin' you to be now? Orange n' stripey?"
Kurt didn't look at him. He didn't want to explain. Todd looked at him and without warning, reached for the wrist with Kurt's inducer on it, holding it up. "Public?" he asked. Kurt shrugged, but Todd had his answer.
"Yeah. So we both have issues then," Todd muttered, letting Kurt's arm fall. "There's always gotta be a fucking catch."
Somehow, Kurt wasn't feeling quite so much the enemy here. Not anymore. "You know, let's just forget it. There's a horrible American remake of some slasher movie downtown. Want to see it?"
"Chainsaw Sorority Massacre?" Todd's face lit up. He'd seen the previews. "Wicked. Want me to snitch us some food, or are you gonna actually buy it?"
"That would be dishonest," Kurt sighed, walking away towards town. Todd bounced after him, stopping in front of the boy with a shady grin. Kurt groaned at the words that he knew were probably going to come out next.
"Wait a sec, forget tickets! You could just port us in!"
"Todd. I'm not porting us in. I'll pay for tickets. And food." Kurt sighed at Todd's doubtful expression. Then it occurred to him this was probably the first time anyone had offered to pay for him in a long while. "Just enjoy someone treating you to something legally for once, ja?" he said, smiling gently. "No looking over your shoulder or worrying if someone saw."
"Sure, whatever. It's your wallet, dawg. Let them rob you blind," Todd huffed at him, looking completely flustered.
But in the end, Kurt looked the other way when Todd used one quarter and string to 'purchase' a couple three-dollar sodas out of the vending machine. And Todd didn't complain about his hand brushing Kurt's when they both reached for the eight-dollar popcorn.
Somewhere across town, two girls were sitting in relative peace and quiet. One sat frustrated by the phone, running possible retorts and arguments through her head as she waited expectantly for it to ring. The other was lounging on the couch, nibbling on trefoils and quite enjoying the uninterrupted marathon of Lexx.