Chapter Two:

The next day, Sam sat with Kurt again. Blaine and Rachel joined them as well, and Sam was pretty sure he'd never met two more annoying people. Somehow, no matter what the topic was, they always managed to bring the conversation back to themselves. It was impressive, actually.

"I'm sorry Sam, but did you just say you liked the X-men?" Kurt asked, raising his eyebrows.

Sam frowned. He'd let that slip out accidentally, and he bit his lip as Santana's voice sounded in his head, telling him he should stick his lips together with a fish hook to avoid letting people know what an mega-nerd he was.

"Yes..." Sam said slowly. There was no point in denying it now, he thought, waiting for Kurt to call him a geek or laugh.

"How?" Kurt asked, shaking his head. "Have you seen their clothes? Those yellow spandex things? Awful."

Sam breathed a sigh of relief. "It's only Wolverine that wears that." He explained. "Everyone else basically has their own uniform."

"Any of them not awful?" Kurt asked skeptically.

"I think there's something to be said for Emma Frost's clothes. And Dark Phenix is fairly stylin'." Sam said.

"I've always thought of myself as sort of a Dark Phenix." Rachel said. "You may think you've defeated me, but I will rise up from the ashes, better and more impressive than before." She said dramatically.

"Totally." Blaine said, nodding like he totally got what Rachel was saying. "When you're in the spot light, you have people constantly trying to beat you down," Sam thought he saw Blaine glance pointedly at Kurt here, and Kurt sunk down a little lower in his seat. "And tell you you're not good enough to be where you are. But you just come back fighting." Blaine said, and Rachel grinned.

"Dark Phenix was a bad guy." Sam said simply. "I mean she was cool, but she was a huge psycho bitch."

Kurt laughed, and Rachel glared at him. "The powerful are often misunderstood."

"Not in this case."

In Glee that day, Sam sat next to Kurt, revealing in the dirty looks being shot to him by Santana. Pissing her off was only an added benefit to hanging out with Kurt though, because he was actually a really cool guy. He liked that Kurt didn't seem to judge him like everyone else. And Kurt's whimsical wardrobe appealed to Sam's short attention span, which was instantly attracted to bright and shiny things.

"Love the hat." Sam said, grinning as he took his seat. He was wearing a yellow fedora with rhinestones around the middle of it. It made rainbow sparkles dance across Sam's chest.

"Bite me, blondie." Kurt smirked, rolling his eyes.

"I'm serious." Sam said. "It's shiny. I like shiny things."

Kurt smiled a little and shrugged. "Well, thanks then."

"No problem." Sam said with a grin.

"Wow, that's bright." Blaine said, making a face at Kurt's hat, and holding up his hand over his eyes, like he was shielding them from the sun. "Do you bedazzle everything?" He joked, taking a seat on the other side of him.

Kurt gave him a tight lipped smile, but said nothing. Blaine, sensing he'd said something to make Kurt mad, moved his arm around him and gave him a one sided hug. "Hey, I think your love of bedazzling is adorable." He said, and placed a small kiss on Kurt's ear.

Kurt smiled, and said a quiet thank you. Sam refrained from rolling his eyes. There was a word for how Blaine acted, Sam was sure of it, but he couldn't remember what it was. Damn, this was going to bug him.

He furrowed his brow, deep in thought.

It was definitely something that started with a "C" he was sure about that. Con something. That made sense, if it was a bad thing, and con meant bad…

"Wow Sam, are you doing your impression of a caveman or something?" Santana sneered, snapping him out of his thoughts. He hadn't even noticed that she'd been standing in front of him.

"I was thinking..." He said slowly.

Santana laughed, and suddenly another word that started with a "C" came to his mind. "You? Thinking?" She said, taking a seat on his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck. "You know you're only good for one thing, and that's having a tasty puffed up marshmellow mouth." She said, leaning in and sucking on his lower lip.

He didn't stop her, because of all the things she'd ever said about his mouth, that was probably the nicest. Instead, he placed his hands on her hips and kissed his back, tilting his head to the side for a better angle.

"Ahem." Mr. Schue said, standing at the front of the room and glaring. Santana stopped kissing him and hopped off his lap, going back to sit by Brittany.

"Sorry, Schue." Sam said, embarrassed.

"It's alright, Sam." He said, turning the white board and writing this weeks theme on it.

Everyone groaned when they saw the word "Country" written, and Sam tuned out again as Mr. Schue gave a long, boring speech about why Country music was in fact not lame, but actually cool and relevant to some lesson they should be learning.

Truthfully, Sam was a little excited. He'd always liked Country music, even if he wasn't planning on admitting it to anyone. It was something only his mother knew (she could hear it playing in his room after all, there was no point in denying it).

He tried to imagine telling Santana, and almost laughed.

Sam: "I'm really excited about this weeks Glee Assignment, Santana."

Santana: "Why, because Country music reminds you of cows, and you have mouth-size solidarity?"

Sam: "No, because I like Country music."

Santana: [Evil Fangs come out] "Only idiots like country music, and you should be ashamed of your own stupidity for that!" [Hisses] "GO DIE SOMEWHERE COLD, TROUTY MOUTH!"

Yeah, not gonna happen.

The next day, Sam decided to eat lunch in the choir room. He knew country music was going to be the topic of conversation at lunch, and judging from what he'd seen yesterday, neither Rachel nor Blaine was very happy about it.

He grabbed one of the guitars, and began strumming it absently, eating his sandwhich with one hand. He tried to think about what song he would do for Glee...probably something by Thompson Square. He hummed a long to the guitar, lost in thought. He needed to stop getting lost in thought, because people kept sneaking up on him and taking him by surprise.

This time, it was Kurt. "What are you playing?"

"Oh, jesus, Kurt!" Sam said, clutching his chest. "You scared me."

"Yes, I'm terrifying." Kurt said sarcastically, taking a seat next to him.

Sam shook his head. "I just didn't hear you come in...shouldn't you be with Blaine?"

Kurt shrugged. "He keep complaining about how tacky country music is. He can be narrow minded when it comes to music. What were you playing?" He repeated.

Sam bit his lip. "Just a song I'm learning." He said, hoping Kurt didn't want him to play it for him.

Of course, he did.

"Can I hear it?"

"Well...I haven't learned it totally yet...and I'm not that good…" Sam mumbled, looking away.

"And it's the second Wednesday of the month, and you're having a bad hair day and late for a doctor's appointment?" Kurt said, and although he couldn't see it, he could practically hear the eye roll in his voice.

"What?" Sam asked. He didn't have a doctor's appointment… "What's wrong with my hair?" He asked, raising his hand up to it.

Kurt laughed, and ruffled his hair a little, and somehow, Sam felt better. He didn't think he'd ever heard Kurt laugh before. "Besides it being far too blond for someone not just 7 hours old?"* Kurt asked, and Sam smiled, pleased to be able to get a reference someone made. "Nothing. I just meant that you can come up with 10 million reasons not to do anything if you wanted to."

Sam nodded. "Fine, but if you laugh at me, I swear I'll deck you." He threatened, and Kurt smiled smugly.

"Just avoid the voice and throat, those are my money makers, Sam." He said, and Sam began to play.

"It's um, 'Lips of an Angel', by the way. By Hinder." He said quietly, strumming. He cleared his throat, and began to sing.

Honey why you calling me so late?

It's kinda hard to talk right now.

Honey why you crying? Is everything okay?

I gotta whisper 'cause I can't be too loud

Well, my girl's in the next room

Sometimes I wish she was you

I guess we never really moved on...

It's really good to hear your voice saying my name

It sounds so sweet

Coming from the lips of an angel

Hearing those words it makes me weak

Sam swallowed, glancing at Kurt's lips as he sang.

And I never wanna say goodbye

But girl you make it hard to be faithful

With the lips of an angel

He'd never really understood the whole "Lips of an Angel" thing before...what did that even mean? He looked at Kurt's lips though...they were red, and soft looking. He made himself look away, focusing on the song.

It's funny that you're calling me tonight

And, yes, I've dreamt of you too

And does he know you're talking to me

Will it start a fight

No I don't think she has a clue

Well my girl's in the next room

Sometimes I wish she was you

I guess we never really moved on

It's really good to hear your voice saying my name

It sounds so sweet

Coming from the lips of an angel

Hearing those words it makes me weak

And I never wanna say goodbye

But girl you make it hard to be faithful

With the lips of an angel

Neither of them noticed that they'd been leaning in closer to each other as Sam sang. Kurt was focusing on the lyrics, wondering why they made something in his chest ache.

Sam was focusing on not messing up the chords around the end of the song, because he didn't want to screw up in front of Kurt. If Kurt thought he was bad, or couldn't play guitar…

It's really good to hear your voice saying my name

It sounds so sweet

Coming from the lips of an angel

Hearing those words it makes me weak

And I never wanna say goodbye

But girl you make it hard to be faithful

With the lips of an angel

And I never wanna say goodbye

But girl you make it hard to be faithful

With the lips of an angel

Honey why you calling me so late?

Everything was silent was the song ended. Now Sam noticed that the distance between them seemed to have shortened. When did that happen?

"That was really good, Sam." Kurt said. Sam smiled, and looked away, blushing.

"Really?" Sam asked, running his fingers through his hair. "I know I sort of messed up around the end, I fumbled..."

Kurt shook his head. "I didn't hear any mistakes. That was a good song for you." Kurt said. "I mean, for your voice."

Sam grinned. "That's why I picked it. I thought it would fit good."

"'Well'." Kurt corrected.

"Huh?"

"It's 'I thought it would fit 'well', not 'good'.' " He said.

"Oh." Sam said, nodding. Of course. What an idiot.

"Don't feel bad, it's a mistake a lot of people make. It's just I'm sort of a grammar nazi." He grinned, and tilted his head to the side a little.

Sam grinned dorkily. "'Grammar is the greatest joy in life, don't you find?'" Sam said, in a high, raspy voice. Ah crap, an impression...he didn't mean too. Santana told him to stop with those...**

"I love that movie." Kurt said quickly. "I read the books when I was 13, and I was obsessed."

Sam smiled. "'The Bad Beginning' was the first chapter book I ever finished by myself." He said quietly. "I mean, without the help of my tutor."

"For dyslexia?" Kurt asked, and Sam nodded. He didn't really talk about the whole dyslexia thing much, because it just reminded him how officially stupid he was. ***

"Orlando Bloom has dyslexia, you know." Kurt commented. "But he read Lord of the Rings, for the movie."

"I've read Lord of the Rings." Sam said quickly.

Kurt smiled. "That's impressive, Sam. Those are hard books." He gave him an embarrassed half-smile. "I barely got through the Hobbit."

"You should read the rest of them." Sam said, his face lightening up. "They're great really. Hobbits are the coolest, they-"

"What the hell is going on in here?" Santana asked, storming in the choir room. She looked at them, and crossed her arms. "Well, why don't you two just a get a friggin' room already?"

"We were in a room." Sam said quietly.

"I meant for sex. I was implying that your obviously gay for Ms. Fabulous over here." She snapped, gesturing to Kurt. "You're such a moron."

Sam frowned and looked at the ground. "I can hang out with my friend if I want to.." he mumbled. Wow, brilliant fucking come back.

"He's not a moron, Santana." Kurt snapped, standing up. Sam looked up in surprise. "You should know that, since you spend every day fawning over the only girl to actually have a Ph.D in the field."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She sneered. "Blaine's looking for you." She said cooly, before turning around and leaving.

"Thanks." Sam said quietly.

Kurt shrugged. "No problem. I can be quick witted too, you know." He said, smiling a little. Sam smiled at Kurt's smile. Even though it was the closed lip one he always gave, Sam liked it.

They left the choir room together, and Sam found himself thinking that the long "Lips of an Angel" had been written for people with lips that looked liked Kurt's.

*Kurt is making a reference to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. In the final floor show, Rocky sings that he's "just 7 hours old".

**This is a quote from the movie "A Series of Unfortunate Events".

***I do NOT think that people with dyslexia are in ANY way stupid at all. This is just Sam having bad self esteem, not a reflection of my feelings!

A/N: Ok, how exactly does one go about getting a Beta? If someone wants to message me to tell me how, or wants to volunteer to be said Beta, that would be great because I have no clue how to go about this stuff.