Disclaimer: This story is for non-profit use and reader's enjoyment only. All creative rights concerning Glee, it's characters and any sayings and/or lyrics quoted here belong to their original creator(s)/artist(s).

"A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education." ~ Smiley Blanton

"Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last. " ~ Samuel Johnson

"Kurt, you know that I am incredibly fond of you and that I am forever grateful for your patience with me and French vocab, but if you continue to hum that song, I swear, I will be forced to throw something at you," Nick said, glaring at the young countertenor who was sitting across the table.

Jeff looked up from his essay just in time to see Kurt stop humming mid-tune, frowning at his best friend. What Jeff surprised most about Nick's statement wasn't him being annoyed (because honestly, Kurt had been humming this damn song non-stop for the past three days and it was starting to get on Jeff's nerves as well) but his frank confession of being fond of Kurt.

Nick normally was the kind of guy that was very reserved around new people. While Jeff got along with almost everybody immediately, Nick wasn't very quick in befriending other people. He usually took his time watching and getting to know them before he opened up to them. But once he decided on liking someone, you could rely on him staying by that person loyally and faithfully no matter what.

Jeff was speaking from experience.

However, it seemed that Kurt was the exception to the rule. It took him no longer then a few weeks until Nick started referring to him as "a friend" – something that nobody else had accomplished in such a short amount of time.

Well, except for Jeff himself, of course. But that was something different.

"I am immensely sorry Nicholas, but I was under the impression that Christmas time actually is the perfect time to hum Christmas tunes," Kurt replied, left eyebrow arched. Nick just snorted in reply, "It's not about you humming Christmas tunes, Kurt. It's about you humming that particular song for... I don't know, the past week?"

"Yeah," Jeff chimed in. "Any particular reason why "Baby it's cold outside" is your favourite Christmas song, Kurt? Because I'd totally took you for the "Deck the halls"-type."

Jeff counted on Kurt replying with a snarky comment on outdated holiday songs. Neither he nor Nick had expected Kurt to blush, and, avoiding their eyes by looking at his homework as if there was something terribly fascinating about it, replying, "No. What makes you think that?"

The grin on Jeff's face grew wider. "Wait. So there is a reason for this song being your favourite?"

Kurt frowned at him, but before he could answer, Nick already continued to inquire: "Is the reason something involving a mistletoe?"

"Or a baking-session that started rather innocently but turned into something pretty mature after a food-fight while this song was playing on the radio?"

"Or being snowed in and making out in front of a fireplace by candle-light?"

"Or a snow-ball-fight?"

"Geez, Jeff, what on earth would be romantic about a snow-ball-fight?"

"If you don't know that, Nick, than you clearly haven't watched enough sappy, romantic Christmas movies."

"Oh, you mean the kind of movies your mum forces me to watch with your whole family every time I visit you during the Christmas holidays?"

"First of all – you only visited me like two times, it's not like we know each other since kindergarten. And second – I wasn't the one sobbing at "Love Actually"!"

"Because you were too busy stuffing your mouth with cookies to pay any attention to the movie in the first place!"

"My mum's cookies are delicious!"

"I'm not denying that, I just always wanted to point out how hard it to concentrate on a movie while sitting next to you and listening to you swallowing eight cookies at the same time!"

"How come you two don't have your own TV-Show?" Kurt interrupted. Nick and Jeff looked at him in bewilderment. Both needed a second to remember that they were not in the safety of their dorm and that a certain young countertenor was still sitting across the table, listening to their rant the whole time.

"Come on, Kurt," Jeff said, returning to the original point of the discussion. "What romantic story is behind that song?"

"You two are greatly overestimating my experience in the romantic department."

Jeff looked at him in confusion, forehead furrowed, "What do you mean?"

Kurt sighed and used his eraser to scrape out his last answer, "I mean that the most romantic Christmas memory I have is my former neighbour's son Timmy giving his favourite Power-Rangers-Shirt to me as a Christmas present when we were five years old. Actually," he added as an afterthought. "That is the most romantic memory I have at all."

Nick and Jeff looked at each other, and Jeff could see his surprise mirrored in Nick's eyes. They both had assumed that Kurt was single (or a shameless flirt, considering how he and Blaine behaved around each other), but neither would have thought Kurt to be a wallflower.

"So, wait, let me get this straight: Are you saying that you never had a boyfriend?" Nick asked. Kurt looked at him with an unreadable expression. Neither Nick nor Jeff could have known that someone casually inquiring about his love-life and at the same time being totally cool with the fact that his love-life involved boys and boys only was a total first for Kurt.

At his old school, barely anyone – except for Mercedes and Tina – had cared at all; and he would have only ever tried to have a love-life conversation with any of the guys if he'd been keen on scaring them away as soon as possible.

Seeing two guys asking innocently about his dating experiences and looking at him with nothing but genuine curiosity was enough to make Kurt's throat tighten. At times like this, he realised just how different Dalton was from McKinley – and how much he loved it, even though the home-sickness sometimes seemed too much to bear.

Jeff didn't know what Kurt was thinking about, he blamed embarrassment and possibly sadness for the fact that Kurt needed thirty seconds to answer that simple question, "No. I never had a boyfriend."

"Oh. Wow," Nick said, more shocked at this than he himself would have anticipated. "Really?"

"Yeah," Jeff said, looking at the newest Warbler as if he was seeing him for the first time. Well, given the fact that he tried to view him as possible boyfriend material that gay guys would for some reason not be interested in, it actually was a first time. "I mean, were all the guys at your school blind or deaf or what?"

Kurt laughed. Even though it came out a bit forced, Jeff was glad to see him cheering up a bit. "I was the only openly gay kid at my old school."

Nick and Jeff shared a surprised look. That was new information. However, Jeff still refused to let go of the more pressing point, "Not even any closeted guys hitting on you?"

A weird expression crossed Kurt's eyes, like he was trying very hard not to remember something horrible. "No."

Nick had a feeling that it would be better not press the matter any further. Instead, he reached out across the table to grab Kurt's French-dictionary to look up a few words while he said, "Wow. I would have taken you for a heartbreaker, to be honest. But anyways, it's their loss. You belong to Dalton now."

"Totally," Jeff said, eager to make up for any bad memories his remarks may or may not have stirred up. "And I bet there are enough guys around here who'll be thankful that you're not taken."

Kurt smiled at them, recognizing their reassurance for what it was, and appreciating the honesty with which these guys wanted him to feel welcomed, "Thank you, guys."

"Now, how about you do the questions on the first page, I do the second page and we switch?" Nick asked hopefully. Kurt snorted, "Dream on, Nicky."

The nasty look the brunette sent him across the table told Kurt that the nickname had struck home. He smiled and returned to his work. Five minutes later, when he was engulfed in his French homework, barely noticing what was happening around him anymore, Nick's eraser hit his forehead.

"Kurt, you're doing it again!"

"Do you think we were being too intrusive?"

Although he had some years experience of dealing with Jeff's questions that came out of the blue sometimes, Nick still wasn't always able to make sense of them. Like the one that Jeff asked him when he was rushing back and forth between his drawer and the bag resting on his bed, packing his belongings for the Christmas holidays.

"What?" he asked breathlessly, throwing a pair of jeans and a blazer into the bag. His father was picking him up in twenty minutes. Of course he could have started packing yesterday evening, but there had been other important things to do. Like kicking Thad's butt at 'Street Fighter'.

"Do you think we were being too intrusive?"

"I heard you, Jeff. The implied question was: What the hell are you talking about?"

"Our study session with Kurt yesterday between classes," Jeff explained, handing Nick a pair of socks that had somehow managed to sneak into Jeff's drawer. "He seemed so uncomfortable when we were asking him about his love-life."

"Probably because he doesn't have any good experience he's keen on telling us," Nick said, stuffing the socks into the depths of his bag.

"I didn't want to make him uncomfortable," Jeff stressed. Nick sighed, "From what I can see, he is still uncomfortable most of the time. Give him some time, Jeff. He's only been here a couple of weeks; he stills needs some getting used to."

Jeff nodded, silently contemplating whether the jacket would fit into the already crammed space that was left in his bag or whether he should just wear it over his sweater.

"By the way," Nick grinned and turned to his best friend. "I spent yesterday afternoon helping Blaine organize the sheet music for our next rehearsals."

"So?"

"Guess what song he was humming for two hours straight?"

A grin matching the one Nick was wearing spread over Jeff's face, "Really?"

"Really. I asked him about it, and apparently he was invited to perform that number at some monstrosity called "King's Island Christmas Spectacular" and asked Kurt to rehearse the song with him."

"Oh my," Jeff said, an amused expression on his face. "The guy doesn't have any idea what he's doing to poor Kurt, does he?"

"None whatsoever," Nick replied, stuffing one last pair of socks into his bag. "But he's always been clueless when it comes to feelings, hasn't he?"

"Preach," Jeff mumbled, his attention focused on closing his bag. Finally he ushered Nick to sit on it so that he could close the zipper.

"Okay, ready to go?" he asked, turning around only to see Nick already standing by the door, clutching his luggage.

"Sure," Nick replied, looking around the room one last time. "As happy as I am to get home for a few days, I'll miss the craziness around here." He shouldered his bag, "I'm going ahead. See you at the parking lot."

"Hey, Nick?"

The brunette paused midway through the door, looking back over his shoulder.

"You will come and visit over Christmas again, won't you?"

Nick's grin spoke volumes.

"Of course I will. Who knows, maybe this year you'll manage to swallow a whole turkey. I wouldn't miss that for the world."

Oh well, since there isn't much Klaine happening in this episode, I took the opportunity to explore the depths of Niff's friendship a little further. =D Yap, it's May and here I am, writing christmas stories...

I should really be working on my BA-thesis right now, but... well, I can't get enough of these boys!

Also, who else is totally psyched about the prom episode next week? Kilt+Kurt=Kult!

Thank you so much everybody who took the time to review the last chapter! Please also let me know what you thought about this one!

~ Nalasan