Author's Note: I lied. This isn't much longer. But, well, I hope you still like it.

Episode 2

"One's as small as a pancake."

"The brunette's quite hot. I wish he'd tuck out his shirt though."

"Did you see the redhead? I mean, I'd by a one way ticket to Japan to meet his stylist."

"Uh-huh, make sure you learn your Japanese or else you could turn out like that tall carrot-top."

"Are you girls talking about cake?" Kurt voiced as he entered the Glee Club practice.

The girls were all huddled on one corner of the room, whispering like the football finals was at stake.

"Equally yummy," Mercedes quipped.

"Haven't you seen them?" Rachel moved to give Kurt room to join their small soiree made of Mercedes, Tina, herself and Quinn.

"The backstreet boys?" Kurt put his face on his hands and batted his eyelashes at Rachel. "Went to their concert twice."

"The new exchange students, Kurt," Tina rolled her eyes. "They were all over the halls this afternoon. Mr. Schuester had to slap Mercedes at Spanish class to wake her up from staring."

"Couldn't help it, that Kurama's hair color could stop traffic."

"I'm taking it as good news," Tina followed up quite quickly. "The more members to the Asian community here at McKinley, the better. Mike and I could use more attendees to the Chinatown community benefits."

"Or performers," Kurt winked at Tina. "You think they-"

"We can ask," Mercedes said, picking up quite quickly. "I'd make Rachel sign a no-sabotage contract though. Remember what happened to Sunshine Corazon?"

"Don't worry," Rachel interjected. "I see the need for more male members of our thinning choir."

"I'd volunteer to ask the three but somebody else handle the small one," Mercedes volunteered. "Seems quite mad at the world. Or at his black boots at least."

"How harsh, he could be a victim of apartheid," Quinn whispered. "But he does ALWAYS seem so mad."

"Madder than Ms. Sylvester?"

The girls, including Kurt, all looked up as Finn, Artie and Puck entered the room.

"She's in a whole new level of rage," Artie breathed. "We better stay clear of the corridors this whole afternoon. She's got the cheerios lining up both sides of the halls to trip everyone who passes. Brittany and Santana will be late for practice today."

"How could anybody trip?" Tina asked. "If they're lining the halls everyone can see their feet sticking out."

"Ms. Sylevester's pushing students into carnage," Puck volunteered.

"Why is she so angry then?" Rachel asked.

"Small exchange student rolled his eyes at her and walked out."

"Wow. The guy's got balls. Won't he get in trouble or something?" Rachel crossed her arms.

"Not anytime soon," Finn huffed. "Did SO well at gym class Coach Beaste has got him practically on a RETAINER for all sorts of games. And his two friends too. And the way we've been losing at football lately, Principal Figgins is all for it. Even gave the three exchange students complimentary lunch passes good for a year at the cafeteria."

"Which ones?" Mercedes looked at Finn a little too eagerly.

"The ones that looked like guys," Finn nodded at her.

"Okay everyone," a voice said from the other side of the room. Mr. Schuester was here. "Get your song sheets ready. As emotional preparation for the nationals, we're singing about regret in a fun way."

Everybody shuffled to their seats and started practicing verses from "Someday We'll Know".

Kurt opened his lips and mouthed the lyrics, but no sound came out. Quite curious, how suddenly his gut ached, like somebody punched it and let his fist stay there instead of pulling it out.

He hasn't told anyone yet, and he was doing quite a good job hiding it by pretending to be his usual sassy self. He wasn't quite ready to be consoled, or worse, to be pitied; frankly he was still pretending it wasn't true. But sometimes, specially moments like this where they're freaking singing it out loud, he realizes how heavy he's been really feeling. Like he was suddenly made of stone.

Well, his heart certainly wasn't, even if his whole body was. This heart was mush, like a peanut butter sandwich left in the locker for too long. And worse, no matter how heart he tried to get his mush back, he still couldn't.

Because he still had it.

Blaine.

"What?"

"Excuse me?" Kurt whispered at Finn.

"You said something."

"No. Nothing at all."

Finn looked at Kurt, and Kurt smiled in return. He hoped it would be enough. He didn't want questions. Most of all he didn't want Finn, or the whole Glee club, getting mad at Blaine. He just got back at McKinley from Dalton; people would think it had something to do with that. It will be hard to explain it didn't.

After a few seconds, Finn nodded at Kurt and looked back at his song sheet.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Kurt decided that he would try his damn hardest not to let anybody find out as long as he could.


"We'd really love to, Mike," Kurama said in gratitude. "But our after-schools are quite busy."

Kurama took a book from the shelf, "Modern American Cooking", and trotted off to a seat. Mike followed him quite like a puppy.

"If you have time to browse through a cookbook," Mike complained. "Surely you have time to join us for tonight's MAC* meeting? Tina would kill me if I can't convince you."

Kurama sighed. Tina and Mike had been alternately introducing themselves and bugging him, Hiei, Yusuke and Kuwabara all day. Given that Kurama seemed to be the only one who had responded with nonviolent tendencies or coherent phrases, the couple (Kurama guessed) decided to zero in on him.

The red head sighed. He couldn't wait to get home and get this first day over and done with. Frankly, he was a little bit scared he'd face something more stressful at the house Koenma rented for the four of them; boxes of stuff would have to be unpacked, stories of the day would have to be listened to, and hungry adolescents would have to be fed.

"Believe me, this cookbook will save my life," Kurama huffed. They had about a week's worth of Japanese food with them, but after that they were left to their own devices. Koenma gave them oodles of money, sure, but the problem was where to spend it. At least Tina and Mike were useful for something; they said the nearest Asian market was a couple of hours drive out of town.

When he heard that, Kurama's heart sank. He really fell into the default role of the cook since he was the one who knew Hiei was an EXTREMELY picky eater; and he would NOT fall into the trap of ordering pizza for dinner every night. America's obesity rate was high enough as it was.

So his plan was to learn how to cook American ingredients, somehow fuse it with Japanese style cooking, and hopefully break all the guys (well, Hiei) in, lest they suffer cranky mealtimes and, occasionally, a katana pointed at Kuwabara's head.

He buried his face on the cookbook until Mike got the hint and slunk away in disappointment.

Kurama supposed he should feel guilty, but he saw no point; he figured the demon wasn't Asian anyway (no.1 rule of disguise: fit in) so no need to scope out this little niche.

He really should focus on the cookbook.

Pot roast.

Ingredients...


He woke up with a hand tapping his shoulder.

"If you get caught, that's one hour detention," a voice said.

Kurama looked around, confused.

"You were sleeping," the owner of the voice said matter-of-factly. Kurama looked up and saw a boy with nicely moussed-up hair.

"Er, thank you."

"It is my soulbound duty to rescue others from punishment by pot roast," the boy said. "Name is Kurt. And that recipe sucks. I've tried it," he said.

"I haven't tasted pot roast, I doubt I'll know the difference," Kurama answered tentatively. He didn't what to make of Kurt - was he being friendly? Or did he come to poke fun at Kurama's hair color like all the other students earlier?

"I can teach you. The food lab's empty now - shouldn't take more than a couple of hours," Kurt offered.

Kurama looked at his watch. He had that time before Hiei, Yusuke and Kuwabara got off from Coach Beaste.

He stared at Kurt's nonchalant face before finally, he nodded, dropped the cookbook, and followed Kurt out of the library.


"Akihabara," Kurt told Mercedes. He was home and in his room with the phone cradled on his neck. "Well, he said his was natural, but you can get your hair to be that red along that street."

"NATURAL? Dang," Mercedes shouted a little too loudly. Kurt pulled the phone away from his ear. "And I suppose those green eyes are, too?"

"What he said," Kurt shrugged.

"How'd you get to talk to him anyway?"

"We, um, cooked potroast together."

"Kurt-"

"It's not what you think," Kurt interrupted immediately. "Anyway, I have to go. See you tomorrow Mercedes."

"Kurt! I-"

Click.

Kurt sighed and sank back down his bed.

He hated to hang up on Mercedes but honestly, he was sure the topic of Blaine would be breached.

In reality he was even surprised at himself for approaching Kurama at the library earlier; he wasn't the type to be overfriendly. It wasn't because he was a snob, but he's been bullied multiple times, he was just careful not to be the one to initiate conversation with people who could be anti-gay, for all he knew.

Well, okay. That wasn't really applicable with Kurama. The guy looked, well, pro-gay. Or, just, gay.

And he was pretty. In a gay, guy-looks-like-a-girl-but-still-very-masculine kind of way.

Kind of, well, kind of like Blaine.

So Kurt felt safe appoaching him.

Wait - he wasn't hitting on Kurama, if that's what you're thinking.

He really wasn't.

He was just looking for someone who could potentially understand.

It felt great hanging out with someone who he didn't know. He didn't have to pretend to be his usual self. So while they were cooking potroast earlier, Kurt felt free to be lonely. He felt it was okay to be quiet as they sliced tomatoes. Kurama was equally quiet anyway.

And, he really wanted to help the exchange student. They had more things in common than he thought: in the few stories exchanged during the cooking session, Kurt learned that Kurama would live in an all-male household too during the length of his stay at McKinley.

And there was another thing.

Beyond the silent slicing of ingredients, waiting patiently while the sauce simmered, and Kurt casually giving out instructions, Kurt was surprised when he felt it, but when he did, he found himself equally glad.

Kurt breathed in. He felt Kurama was, like him, in love.

And more than that, it seemed like they both had broken hearts.


*MAC: McKinley Asian Community

To be continued...