A Man On The Run
Chapter 1- The Den
Like some kind of sexual predator!
Finn's words ring in his ears as he slams the back door shut. He has no time for politeness right now. He's angry and he needs to calm down. He doesn't care that he's being loud and boisterous. For right now, Kurt Hummel needs to be loud and boisterous before he turns to his so called step-brother to be and says something that will cascade upon his entire family and ruin everything that his father has worked for with Carole. He loves his father too much to let anything as banal as a Finn Hudson insult sting him to the point of destruction.
So he does what he always does when he needs to calm down. Climbs the ladder up the sanctuary he built when he was seven. His treehouse. He calls it 'The Den' because it was created to be anything that Kurt wanted it to be. A nail salon, recording studio, yoga room, anything that Kurt needed at that moment, he would turn it into exactly that. The Hummel property is very large and the treehouse combines of several small rooms, connected by a sizable corridor that traverses the space of several large trees in the backyard. Kurt spent a lot of time decorating it for many purposes when he was younger but he's more than thankful for it now that he needs space away from the main house.
Now it would serve the purpose of a calm zone, a peaceful room in which he can escape the anxieties and anger he feels about the situation with Finn and return to the house when he's feeling better. That's the mature thing to do. Although Kurt doesn't like the easy idea of Finn sitting in their room and not even caring about the words he just spat out. It wasn't fair, but that was the way it would be for now. Kurt would deal with it later when he was more relaxed and could talk to Finn the way an adult would.
His arms and legs climb the rope ladder the same way he did when he built the thing: steady, sure and quick. It takes only a few seconds for him to clamber inside the space and he surveys it, checking that everything is the same since the last time he came in here to vent about Mercedes' overbearing attitude to nobody but himself. He nods when he sees that his relaxation pod, as he calls it today, was definitely the right call.
Kurt lies down in the middle of the floor, staring up at the numerous movie posters he has on his ceiling. Despite when the student body thinks about Kurt's attitude towards musicals, he much prefers movies. He loves the classics as well as modern indies. He loves watching movies again to find meanings that he hadn't previously discovered. He loves finding new ones to watch and falling in love with different actors' performances.
He's fixating on his poster of Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski when he hears it. A rumble, not too far away, but definitely contained inside the treehouse.
"The fuck…" Kurt hisses and slowly rises to his knees, shuffling towards the corridor. He quickly navigates it and slides into the next room, where his space themed memorabilia lies. Oh, and the half-naked man that's crouching behind one of the boxes.
"Excuse me!" Kurt throws the empty box to the floor, revealing the man properly. His shirtless body is well toned, covered in a light layer of body hair, not too much. If Kurt appreciates the sight, he doesn't let on.
"Uh…hey," The man replies.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"I'm nobody. You didn't see me here."
Kurt rolls his eyes. "Oh, my bad, I didn't realise we were going around the circle and each saying something completely stupid. I'll repeat my question. Who…the fuck…are you?"
The man sighs and crawls out from behind the box. He sits in the middle of the floor, hands moving along the floor as he talks. "The name's Jesse. I'm kind of in a bit of a legal…bind right now, so I was just hiding up here until I could sort something out. That cool, man?"
Kurt folds his arms, sitting cross-legged opposite Jesse. "Is that cool?"
"Okay, I guess not. Look, I'm gonna beg you now, bro, just let me chill here for a little while and I'll do something for you. I got cash."
"I have money, that's not something I need. What I need is for you to get the hell out of my den. And don't call me 'bro'."
"It's a pretty sweet setup you got, man," Jesse remarks.
"Not that either. And you don't seem to be listening. Either that or you're just remarkably terrible at deflection."
"What can I say? I'm terrible at deflection. What's the harm in me sitting up here quietly for an hour or so?"
"You're disturbing my quiet time."
Jesse shrugs. "If you go back in that other room, you won't even know I'm here."
"Oh, I will. It's not every day a good-looking man sits shirtless in the middle of my treehouse."
"You think I'm good looking?"
Kurt rolls his eyes. "Oh, get over yourself. But I suppose you can stay here just for a little bit. And then you have to leave. I'll check back tonight and if you're still here, I'll bring my dad's shotgun out. And believe me when I say that I know how to use it."
"I doubt you've ever used it before," Jesse comments smartly.
"I've never needed to before," Kurt fires back.
Jesse raises an eyebrow. "Not even to deal with whatever you were shouting about in the house?"
Kurt visibly deflates and puts his head down.
"Sore subject?"
Kurt shakes his head, still looking down. "I'd just prefer not to talk about it."
Jesse shrugs. "Whatever, man, but I've got nowhere else to go for an hour and it seems like you need to get something off your chest."
Kurt perks up a little bit and smiles. "Okay, basically," he says and begins launching into the saga that is Kurt Hummel and Finn Hudson. He recounts everything from the stupid crush to the lamp incident to tonight's incident, which was pretty much a continuation of the lamp incident but with harsher words said.
"So that brings us to what happened tonight," Kurt adds.
Finn traipsed into the room, tripping over Kurt's chair. Kurt bit his lip to refrain from sighing and/or laughing at him. Finn hated it when people laughed at him, even though he more than set himself up for it and did so many times even that day.
"Hey dude, so you know that the Glee Club wants us to duet at mom and Burt's wedding…"
Kurt knew that this would come. Not the time or the place, but he knew that Finn was going to end up having this particular conversation with him and that it wasn't going to end well.
"Yeah, I think it's a good idea. Shows solidarity and family and all that other stuff."
Finn fidgeted, like he didn't want to say it. But Kurt wanted him to. Or else it would just get bottled up in the things that Finn always wished he could say.
"Say it, Finn," Kurt urged, his tone dropping and becoming cold instantly.
"I don't think we should do it. I mean, I don't want to do it."
Kurt hit his beats exactly. A pause. A sigh. A question that he already knew the answer to. "Why not?"
Finn leaned against the wall. "Things are just getting good again with Rachel. I don't want anything to disrupt that, not now."
"And why would us doing a duet at the wedding disrupt that?"
Jesse interrupted with the same question.
Kurt held up a finger. "You realise I'm literally about to answer that question in the story, right?"
Jesse snorted. "Go on."
Finn shrugged. "People would talk."
"Bullshit, Finn," Kurt chuckled. "This isn't about Rachel or people talking. It's about you feel uncomfortable singing a song with me."
"No it's not."
Kurt just stared. "That was the weakest lie I've ever heard. Just admit it, Finn, that you're scared of singing a song with me because you think it'll make you gay."
"I'm not gay!"
Kurt frowned. "Yes, Finn. I know. You've spent the last month making sure I know that. Look, I just thought we could do something nice for our parents on their wedding day, but if you're going to be selfish about this once again, then I don't know what else to say."
"I'm being selfish?"
"Is that to imply that I'm the one being selfish?"
"Yes. No. I don't know. But what I do know, Kurt, is that last year you would've jumped at the chance to sing a duet with me. How do I know that this is any different?"
"Because I'm completely over my crush on you, Finn. Believe me, it takes me a while to remember why I actually liked you in the first place."
"How do I know that? We're living together, Kurt. I have to feel safe here."
Kurt's blood ran cold. "Are you saying that you don't feel safe here? Because if you don't, maybe you should say something about it."
"Why did you tell him to say something about it?"
Kurt stared at Jesse, hard. "Why did you have to interrupt? I'm literally almost done."
"I just wanted to ask a question."
"If we can save all questions until the end, that'd be wonderful."
Finn shrugged. "If we're being all honest, I definitely look twice before I get out of the shower."
Kurt smirked. "Why? Because you think I'm going to be there, waiting for you around the corner ready to molest you? Is that what you think?"
Finn's silence confirmed everything Kurt needed to know.
"Okay, stop, I get the story now, I don't want to hear the rest."
Kurt turns to Jesse. "All else that happens is that he says I act like a sexual predator and then I storm out and…well, you know the rest."
Jesse's knuckles are turning white. "Man, that guy's an asshole. You should beat the shit out of him."
"Okay, he's six feet, five inches tall and the quarterback. What makes you think I could beat him up?"
Jesse shrugs. "You're angry. And it's not always about physical standing. I'm not the tallest or biggest guy but I can always hold my own in a fight."
"Sounds like you've been in a lot of them."
"A fair few. Comes with the territory I guess."
Kurt eyes him suspiciously. "Territory? Ah, is this the reason you're on the run from the law?"
"I think you're better off not knowing."
"Try me."
Jesse shrugs again. "Okay. Well me and my partner are running a meth lab and I may have just killed a person an hour ago."
"You may have just killed a person."
"I shot him and ran. I don't know if he's dead or alive."
"Well, where did you shoot him?"
"Stomach."
"So depending on if there was anybody around him or if he had a phone, chances are quite high that he survived."
Jesse sighs, seemingly relieved. "And that makes you an accomplice in attempted murder."
Kurt smiles plainly and picks out a few words from a recent episode of Law and Order. "After the fact. Much easier to tactically combat in court."
Jesse takes a moment to just look at Kurt and wonder who the fuck this guy is. He's very attractive. Jesse's comfortably bisexual but this guy is hot enough to make him want to give up girls forever just to have him. Jesse absently wonders if he's eighteen.
"I turned eighteen two weeks ago."
"But you said you were a junior?"
Kurt turns sombre. "I missed a year of school after my mom died. Had to repeat."
Jesse just nods, not knowing what else to say.
"Okay, I'm going to go back inside now. And I'll be checking to see if you're still lurking. Thanks for…listening, I guess."
"Hey, wait a minute. I can't go not knowing whether or not you're gonna beat up your step-brother."
Kurt's lips tighten. "I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon."
Jesse blinks. "Okay, so I'll do it. Just give me a picture of him and I'll take care of it. He can't just get away with saying shit like that."
Kurt rolls his eyes. "And he won't. You seriously think I'm just going to roll over and let him speak to me like that in my own house?"
Jesse can't explain the sudden feeling that sweeps over him, but he's sure it isn't good. "Fair point."
"Exactly. Oh, and Jesse, if you need somewhere else to hide, try the gas station not too far from here. The back door of the store is broken so it'll be open."
"Thanks," Jesse nods as Kurt climbs down the ladder. He doesn't want to ask how the hell Kurt knows about that, he's not entirely sure that he wants the answer.
"Maybe we'll see each other again, maybe not."
"I'll be coming back to check on whether or not you've taken care of Finn."
He isn't sure if Kurt hears him or not.
Whether Kurt hears him or not, Jesse promises himself that he's going to come back. He can't not know how the story ends now. Screw Walt and his impending lecture about focusing on the task at hand. Jesse's barely anything more than a delivery boy in this current meth climate anyway so he doesn't really see what the fuss is about. Anyway, avoiding the police is his number one priority for the moment, even Walt would probably agree.
So Jesse draws his knees up and just waits until he think it might be safe to move and silently thanks himself that he has an excuse to return to the treehouse.