ATTENTION: This story was written in three chapters, all of which have already been posted on another site. But I'm having difficulties with my laptop at the moment, and adding this note from a friend's. All the chapters are completed already, but I will not be able to post them until Wednesday (June 8th, 2011) at the soonest. I promise they will be up as soon as I get my laptop up and running again. 3 Love you guys.

Dave tried not to feel too uncomfortable in costume. He just felt like such a tool wandering the halls of McKinley in this get-up. But Schue had said everyone in Glee club had to dress up for Halloween, all day, no exceptions. It was some kind of exercise in confidence. He just tried to keep his head low and bide his time until the dance tonight, when everyone would be in costume.

It was incredibly difficult to keep your head low when sitting atop it was a three-cornered pirate hat.

What in the hell had possessed him to dress as a pirate, he would never know. But it just felt right at the time. Now, with all the school staring at him and snickering, he wanted to crawl into a corner somewhere and hide out. There were way too many gay jokes they could oh-so-easily make from his costume, and now that he was out he knew they would.

He tried not to look at their judgmental faces, and kept repeating to himself that being in Glee club, and being near Kurt, was worth this.

One side effect of keeping your head low is that you're not always entirely sure what you're looking at.

He saw the shoes first, these little pale pink things with straps and flowers just behind glossy painted toenails. Thinking those might be a little fancy for school, David let his eyes drift slowly up the pale, smooth, shaven legs. Those legs were… Dave swallowed, confused by his own train of though. His eyes reached the hem of the pink gingham dress, it's flowy skirt swaying. It was cinched in at the tiny waist. Dave wasn't bothered by the lack of breasts, all he saw was the pale expanse of collarbone framed by the thin shoulder straps tied in small bows. He wanted to lick that chest, like candy. He didn't understand. He was gay, he had come out, he liked men, why in the hell-

Oh.

Oh.

His eyes finally reached the porcelain angel's face. The little pleased smirk held a hint of lip gloss, and lovely light brown hair was held out of Kurt Hummel's face by two pink plastic flower barrettes on the right side of his head.

Dave didn't notice he'd stopped walking until Azimio bumped into him.

"Hey what the fuck man, you need-" The tone changed instantly when he saw David's face. "Sup man, what you doing standing in everyone's way?"

"Um, nothing, I-" He turned to his friend and had to do a double take. "What the hell are you wearing?"

"Oh!" Az leaned back and spread his arms out, looking proud. "You like it?"

"You're a pirate."

"Hell yeah."

"I'm a pirate."

Az cocked his head to the side. "Dude, that's the point."

"You're not even in Glee club."

"Psh." Azimio shrugged and slammed a hand onto Dave's shoulder, shaking him a bit. "Best friend solidarity bro. A pirate's life for you, a pirate's life for me."

"Mm hm." Dave shook his head and looked away.

"Hey who's the new gir- oh."

Dave didn't have to look to know what Az was talking about, but he did anyway. Any excuse. Any damn excuse.

Kurt was at his locker now. Pink fingernails turned the dial delicately, and then pulled up on the latch and opened the door. He lifted himself up on his tiptoes to pull a book carefully into his arms. It was a totally unnecessary action- Kurt wasn't short enough to struggle with reaching his things. But when he did it the skirt raised ever-so-slightly, showing the smallest bit of more leg.

Dave shuddered.

Az noticed and chuckled. "Man you are fucked."

He swallowed hard and shrugged his friend's hand off his shoulder, striding over to his own locker. "Don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah sure, whatever." Azimio leaned against the wall next to where David stood, and looked from Kurt to his best friend. "Hummel has you wrapped around his manicured pinky. And you're loving it."

"Fuck you man, it's just a Halloween costume." He rummaged through his books, though he really didn't need anything from his locker.

"If you say so." He shrugged. "You better find something more interesting to say, though. The lovely lady is headed your way."

He peeked from behind his locker door. Kurt was indeed moving towards him, a grin on his lips, practically bouncing with every step.

"Shit." He hid his face in his locker, and rubbed his eyes furiously.

Az lifted himself away from the wall and started to leave. "Good luck!"

"Azimio, no!" He grabbed for his friend's arm, but fell short as Az grinned at him and waggled his fingers in a goodbye. "Don't you dare leave me here alone you son of a bi- Hey Kurt." The final two words were considerably louder, said with a forced smile as he shut his locker a bit too fast.

Kurt feigned a frown and shook a finger at Dave. "It's Elizabeth today, hadn't you noticed?" He took a step back and twirled to accentuate the point. Dave's breath caught when the skirt rose with his motion.

"Um, yeah, I noticed. Really?" He scratched the back of his head. "I have to call you Elizabeth?"

"Nah, I'm just seeing who'll actually do it." He frowned, and for the first time he looked down at his dress with a tad of doubt. "What's wrong, don't you like it?"

"No," Dave said hurriedly. "It's not that, I love it."

Kurt's eyes went back to David's, and after a moment, he smiled. "Oh I see. You like it more than you think you should?"

Dave didn't understand why he felt so panicked. "What? No, I, it's not-"

The bell rang, cutting his words off. Kurt waved goodbye and twirled around quickly to head to class.

Dave slammed his head against his locker and left it there.

"It couldn't have gone that shitty."

He almost jumped at Azimio's voice. Without lifting his forehead from the cool metal, he turned his head to shoot his best friend a dark glare. "You know for a huge black man you're a fucking ninja."

He beamed with pride. "I know it. Bitches live in fear of my ninja skills. Now what happened with the little princess?"

Dave didn't get to answer. The clack of boots on tile announced the coming of Santana, who stopped a few feet from them and place a hand on her hip, right above the ruffled skirt of her costume. She ripped the tri-cornered hat from her head, ignoring the locks of hair that flew out of place, and shook it at the two boys like a weapon. "Someone is changing."