Rating: PG
WARNINGS: Slashy fluff.
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In life, Todd had decided, there will always be stupid holidays; frivolous holidays, commercial holidays, social holidays, and religious holidays. They'd been stupid when he was little, stupid now, and would surely be stupid forty years from now. Assuming he lived that long.
Valentine's Day took the cake, though.
Okay, so maybe it had some good points, even if he had to think awful hard to come up with them. There was sugar everywhere, for one, but when the only thing in Todd's stomach all week was pink cake, cockroaches, and Mountain Dew, things got really interesting over at the boarding house. Even moreso when sugar and soda were the only things Pietro could get ahold of, too. There was Kitty showing up in her little cupid outfit, with strap-on wings and a pink vinyl miniskirt, even if too many obscene comments from the peanut gallery made Lance try to bring the house down on top of their heads.
Diabetic comas and vinyl miniskirts aside, Valentine's Day didn't have much going for it. Some committee at the school put up construction paper hearts and paper chains, and yet another group, this time in the interest of fund raising, talked members of the choir into delivering singing telegrams at the ends of classes. Todd and Freddy pulled down hearts and paper chains pretty steadily throughout the day, and Todd turned them into spit balls, lobbing them at the heads of every committee they could think of, hoping one of them was responsible for the terrible pinkness.
Pietro had, of course, completely disappeared that day, and Lance was thoroughly distracted by his own mix of love, angst, and vapidity. Freddy had no prospects and never had, to Todd's knowledge, so he was an excellent candidate to help Todd destroy decorations.
Even that lost its appeal after awhile.
By forth period, Todd had destroyed two dozen paper hearts, consumed three bags of someone else's candy (he hadn't had money for lunch for a few days) and heard three singing telegrams performed by the choir's sixteen year old contralto, who was trying desperately not to let his voice change in the middle of the song.
By forth period he'd also been dizzy and a little sick from having nothing in his gut except chocolate and candy hearts. Kurt had subtly tried to get his attention from across the room, English being one of the few classes they had together, but Todd had ignored him in favor of face-planting on his desk and waiting until the buzzing in his head went away.
Todd skipped after that. He'd dumped all his schoolbooks in his locker and spent the last period of the day in the parking lot behind the heritage museum, a block away from the school. He wasn't the only irritable looking student hiding back there from the pinkness, but he was the only one wondering whether throwing up would make him feel better or worse. He bummed a few cigarettes off a flinching boy with a black eye and smoked his way steadily to the end of the day.
That parking lot wasn't exactly a well kept secret. So he really shouldn't have been surprised when Kurt's legs came wandering into his field of vision, identifiable by…well…those awful khaki cargo pants. He looked up blearily and squashed the cigarette filter between his teeth, a centimeter of ash falling into his sweater.
"You okay?" Kurt asked, coming over to sit next to him, propped against the back wall of the building.
"Oh. Yeah. I'm great, dawg." Todd said flatly. He flicked the mostly smoked cigarette out into the lot.
Kurt looked at him. "You looked a little sick in English. I tried to catch you after class but you ducked out too fast."
"Dude, we were doing a review on Romeo and Juliet. I wasn't the only one who ducked out fast."
Kurt gave a lopsided smirk. Todd took a moment to contemplate whether he should just go over to the flinching kid and steal his whole pack, and Kurt started rifling through his backpack. Something sharp poked Todd in the elbow and he looked back at Kurt, disinterested, to see a flat yellow box with Whitman stamped on the top. He raised his eyebrows and Kurt offered it to him again, looking a little embarrassed.
"The hell, dawg?"
"Er…well, I haven't really done this Valentine's Day thing before, and not in America. Kitty insisted I either had to buy flowers, or chocolate. I figured you'd kick my ass if I showed up with a half dozen roses."
Todd took the box and stared down at it blankly.
"…Kitty knows I'm a GUY, right?" Todd asked.
Kurt's face turned pink. "I told her it was stupid, but she can be really stubborn when she sets her mind to something."
Todd snorted. "Kitty should stick to vinyl miniskirts for Valentine's Day." He put the box down on the asphalt, a good few feet away from him. No more chocolate. Ever. Well, at least not until he got too hungry again. They both sat there and stared at the yellow box for a few long moments.
"We're not really a valentine's day kind of couple, are we?" Kurt said.
"No. We are not."
"…so I guess this means I don't get to call you something disgusting like Hunny Bunny for the rest of the day, huh?"
"Not if you enjoy having both your arms." Todd said simply.
Silence again.
Then "Are you sure your okay? You're looking pretty green."
"Ha ha."
"Green for you." Kurt amended.
Todd rolled his eyes again. "You still wanna do something for me for Valentine's Day?" he asked, apparently unrelated.
Kurt looked a little surprised. "Um, like what?" he asked suspiciously.
"Buy me cheeseburgers."
"….what?"
"Buy me cheeseburgers." Todd repeated. "And French fries. I want real food. Lets go to Gutbusters and get real food. You're paying." He informed him simply.
Kurt blinked. "Alright. Valentine's day cheeseburgers?" he asked.
"Yes. Valentine's day cheeseburgers." Todd confirmed.
Kurt stood up, reshouldering his backpack, and Todd pushed himself up against the wall. He stooped to collect the box of chocolate and stuffed it under his arm. He loathed it right now, but experience told him that once he got hungry again he'd regret abandoning food.
"Lets go get some weight on that skinny ass of yours." Kurt said, starting off.
"Eh, you like my skinny ass and you know it." Todd smirked.
Kurt grinned, and gave his hand a quick squeeze before they came out from behind the cover of the building.