A/N: I usually do this at the end of each chapter, but I wanted to apologize for the delay and thank you for all your wonderful comments on the last chapter! I sincerely hope you will enjoy this one.
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).
"Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them." ~ W. Clement Stone
"Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight is said to be the only truth." ~ Herman Melville
"From now on, I want every of my birthday parties to be a foam party," Nick exclaimed, brushing a few wet bangs out of his eyes. Jeff grinned as he staggered towards his best friend, occasionally slipping on the wet floor.
"I'm pretty sure you'll grow tired of this once you hit forty, but count me in!"
Nick grinned and bent down to pick up his blazer that lay abandoned on the floor. It was soaking wet. The brunette boy wrinkled his nose in disgust before he wrung it out.
"I'm pretty sure it's ruined," Jeff said unconcerned. It wasn't just for the fact that it was wet, but the feet of sixteen Warblers and nearly as many girls had just trampled over it approximately a hundred times during their performance. There was just no way Nick could still wear that.
"Maybe you're right," Nick sighed in acceptance, slinging the jacket over his shoulder. It wasn't like the performance hadn't been worth one ruined blazer.
Jeff's attention, however, was already somewhere else. "Why does Goran always get all the good-looking chicks?" he asked, his voice containing only the slightest hint of jealousy. Nick looked over his shoulder and spotted Goran and Flint, each chatting with three girls at once. He shrugged. "Taking into consideration that he goes through Crawford girls like there's no tomorrow, I'm guessing he's just greeting some old flames."
"Speaking of Crawford girls - why didn't Wes invite Beatrice?" Jeff asked, scrunching up his nose thoughtfully.
"I highly doubt that she would have had time for this between her exams and applying to foreign language schools and winning tennis championships," Nick answered, adding grinningly as an afterthought, "Plus, I doubt he appreciates having her around when we are also present."
Beatrice Young, Wes' girlfriend and a senior at Crawford Country Day, was generally loved by every Warbler since the one time she showed up during a very stressful rehearsal when they were practising five different performances and brought them cupcakes. Not to mention she had called Wes "honey pie" in front of everybody, providing endless teasing material to annoy their lead council member.
"Look," Jeff said, his elbow hitting Nick's ribcage almost affectionately. He gestured towards Noel, the youngest Warbler and hopeless literature-nerd, who was standing in front of two giggling school-girls, looking absolutely horrified. "Maybe he has finally found somebody with whom he can talk about Shakespeare or Woopsworth or whatever these guys he's so keen on are called."
Nick decided that Jeff's literary ignorance was more endearing than frustrating and needed no correction. At least not for the moment.
"If that would be what they're talking about, Noel wouldn't look so absolutely terrified," he retorted. "But I'm sure Trevor will save him," he added, watching Noel's best friend tangling himself free from a group of Warblers and heading to save their youngest one.
Now that Jeff had started it, Nick looked around the hall, watching his teammates socialising with the Crawford girls – or keeping to themselves. The council was deep in conversation, probably reviewing the feedback they had received from their audience. Trent was talking to a girl who seemed every bit as shy as he was. It was rather adorable to watch them staring at their feet before one of them gathered up the courage to keep the conversation going.
"I think only Blaine has received more phone numbers than Goran," Jeff said, claiming Nick's attention once again.
"Then I'm not sure who to feel more sorry for – the girls that fall for Goran's devilish charm or the ones that'll have to discover that Blaine doesn't dig their sex," the brunette boy replied.
"It's going to be a disappointment for all of them, but speaking of which," Jeff said, scanning the hall searchingly, "Where is our fearless leader?"
"Over there, with Kurt," Nick replied, pointing towards the scaffold that had served them as a stage during their performance. Kurt was sitting there, apparently fixing his appearance. Blaine was standing in front of him, gesturing and talking, while Kurt was eying him with a look that spoke of pure suspicion and apprehension.
"I wonder what they're talking about," Jeff remarked, and if Nick had to judge by the fact that his best friend already had an arm around him and was dragging him towards the other two, he'd say that Jeff was determined to find out.
Suddenly, he frowned and slowed down, causing them to remain out of hearing distance. "Jeff? Did you think that Kurt's dance moves were a little... over the top during 'Animal'?" Nick asked. What he had witnessed of it he had found rather weird and irritating, but maybe that had just been him.
Jeff blinked at him in confusion. "I thought they were pretty cool and original. Why?"
"Just asking," Nick mumbled, nudging again Jeff in the direction of the two other Warblers. Okay. So it really had just been his personal impression. Jeff was already smiling again and waving at a frowning Kurt, who did not seem too happy to see them approaching.
"Hey guys, what are you two talking about?" Jeff said, greeting Blaine with a pat on the shoulder. "Are you already planning our next performance? I mean, we totally put the 'sexy' back into the Warblers, didn't we?"
Before Blaine had any opportunity to comment on that, Kurt gave him a look that was decidedly nasty, saying, "Personally, I've had my share of sexy Warblers, thank you very much. Although I welcome the council finally trying something new, hopefully next time they choose something that doesn't involve us hopping around in front of a bunch of twelve-year olds."
Jeff shot Nick a questioning look who just shrugged. He suspected that Kurt was still pissed because the council had objected to both his song suggestion and his costume arrangement for the performance. And though Nick wouldn't mind to do a Justin Timberlake number, he was glad to be spared anything that involved leather and sequins.
Kurt's eyes suddenly narrowed, and Nick felt that a very uncomfortable stare was directed at him.
"Nicholas Richard Williams, please do tell me that this thing over your shoulder has not been your blazer in its former life?"
Nick bit his lower lip, while Jeff just grinned in silent amusement. Shit, now he'd alerted the fashion police. Kurt, in the meantime, had hopped of the scaffold and was now standing next to him, inspecting the damp blazer. He made a very disapproving noise in the back of his throat.
"It's ruined. You might as well toss it in the dumpster outside. No use keeping it."
"But maybe I could..." Nick protested, only to be cut off by the taller boy.
"What, use it as a mop?" Kurt's look was enough to silence Nick. "You can get those at the next supermarket, Nick. There's no need to torture this poor fabric any further." Jeff laughed and put an arm around Blaine's shoulders, who observed their discussion with sheepish amusement.
"Come on, fearless leader. I see Wes is bidding goodbye to our female guests, and I have the strong feeling that we'll be leaving soon. Let's join our brave council and leave these two to their fashion discussion."
Blaine shot a last apologizing grin at Kurt before Jeff started to pull him away. Kurt made the disapproving noise again, causing Nick to look inquiringly at the taller boy.
"You okay?" he asked since Kurt still looked like he had tasted something nasty. Kurt just shook his head vehemently, as if to get rid of whatever he was thinking about. "I'm fine," he said, and though Nick wasn't inclined to fully believe that, he accepted it. If Kurt wanted to talk about it, he would; if he didn't, there was no use to force him to.
"We should join the others, unless we want Wes to summon us personally," was therefore all he said. Kurt nodded, his eyes trailing towards the figures of Jeff and Blaine in front of them.
Things between Jeff and Kurt had been awkward for a little while, and all three of them had needed some time to get used to the new situation. The trust that had started to build between them had been shaken, but not been destroyed. After all, Jeff was the most trusting person Nick knew, and he wanted to forgive Kurt just as badly as Kurt wanted to be forgiven.
Nick knew that they had talked about what happened a second and a third time – talks Nick had witnessed from afar and had been informed about late at night long after curfew, when Jeff's whispers in the private of their dark dorm told him what he had discussed with Kurt.
Eventually, things between them settled, though they didn't get back to "normal". After having that big a fight that had crossed all personal boundaries and actually working through it, it was impossible to go back to the caring, but nonetheless shallow friendship they had before. Things changed, but surprisingly – they changed for the better.
The three of them had spent hours at the Lima Bean or in Nick's and Jeff's dorm, just sitting around, sipping coffee or hot chocolate or tea, talking about their lives.
Kurt showed how thankful he was for their support and friendship by slowly starting opening up to them, though he still was rather reserved when it came to personal stuff. In return, Nick and Jeff had filled him in on how life at Dalton worked.
They told him how they decided to join the Warblers and about the auditions of the other guys. Kurt had been most interested in the description of Blaine's first performance, which had caused Nick to roll his eyes and Jeff to make suggestive remarks until Kurt threatened to continue their conversations exclusively in French - a language Jeff destested with all his heart. They told him stories of pranks played in classes and to the Warblers council (granted, glue on the chair wasn't very innovative, but Thad's puffy, angry face had been totally worth it). They told him about midnight video game parties and former competitions and how one time almost every Dalton student got food-poisoning because the cafeteria had served fresh fish that hadn't been that fresh anymore. (Since Jeff hated fish, he got lucky that time – and spent three days distracting his sick best friend from throwing up by reading two Harry-Potter-books and eight Batman comics to him).
Of course there were still things they weren't yet comfortable sharing: Nick had yet to mention the recent divorce of his parents, Jeff hadn't filled Kurt in on how his former best friend reacted when he came out to him, and Kurt usually fell silent when he tried to tell them about the bullying at his old school, like he couldn't bring himself to tell them all the details.
But nevertheless, the trust between them was growing rapidly.
Funnily enough, Nick noticed how the exact same thing happened between Kurt and Blaine.
Having mastered the first serious crisis of their relationship, the two of them grew impossibly close. Jeff and Nick knew that Kurt's feelings towards Blaine hadn't changed at all – if anything, they only intensified. Still, it was impossible for them to determine whether Blaine's feelings had changed at all – and if they did, whether he was aware of them.
But since Kurt and Blaine had now truly become inseparable (except for the few times they managed to drag Kurt away for some "Nikuff"-quality time, how Jeff, who had been smitten with the idea of couple-nicknames Kurt introduced to them, had baptized them (which caused Kurt and Nick to both ignore him for half an hour straight)), Nick found himself spending more and more time with Blaine – and he discovered that once he was able to look past the lead-vocalist-exterior, he actually came to grow fond of Blaine.
And it wasn't only that Nick and Jeff were on their way to actually befriend Blaine: the Warblers generally seemed to grow closer. It was how Noel actually started talking to the others in understandable English and stopped quoting Byron or Poe every time an opportunity arouse. It was how Adrian and Trevor had invited everybody to visit them at their cottage during the summer break, and how everybody actually planned to take them on their offer. It was how at one evening after a long practice-session, Wes had looked at his exhausted teammates and, instead of delivering his usual non-motivating motivation speech, just said, "Oh screw it. Thad, David, we're ordering pizza. Now."
Nick felt a finger gently poking his cheek, irritatedly snapped out of thoughts and swatted Jeff's hand away from his face. The blonde boy just grinned, turned to Kurt and said, "See? Whenever he is spacing out, you either do that or you ruffle his hair, whatever annoys him more."
Nick glared at his best friend, "I do not space out." When all Jeff did was raising his left eyebrow, he sighed and added, "Much."
Kurt looked from the brunette to the blonde boy for a moment before he said, "Can I ask you guys a question?"
"Sure."
"How exactly did the two of you become friends?" Kurt asked.
Jeff sighed dramatically, "It was a love at first sight."
Nick just snorted, "No it wasn't."
Jeff, undisturbed by the fact that his best friend was contradicting him, continued, "It was our first day at Dalton. I was wandering through the corridors, a bit afraid because I didn't know anybody yet and wasn't sure whether my fellow classmates would turn out to be horrible snobs or not. I was searching for my classroom when I spotted another person in the hall, staring at a piece of paper and looking every bit as forlorn as I felt that moment."
"You do have to make this sound like the beginning of the sappiest gay-teen-romance-movie ever, don't you?" Nick complained. Unperturbed, Jeff continued, "Like I said, looking every bit as forlorn as I felt that moment, so I approached him. And when he looked up and our eyes met, I instantly knew this was the person I was destined to share my Dalton Academy life with, play pranks to our beloved council and win every National show choir competition with."
Kurt rolled his eyes and looked inquiringly at Nick, eager to hear the true story. The brunette boy just shrugged, "We met in the cafeteria. He sat down next to me and told me that I could use a new haircut."
Jeff frowned at his best friend. "Nick, you are ruining the magic of our first encounter."
Nick just sighed. "It wasn't magical, Jeff. You told me my hair was a mess, but that you liked it that way, introduced yourself and followed me to every class we had together."
The blonde boy just winked, "And you just couldn't resist my charm."
"I wasn't very good on ignoring people back then, that's all."
"When weren't you good on ignoring people?" asked Blaine's voice from somewhere behind Kurt. The countertenor turned around and explained, "Nick and Jeff are informing me about their "magical" first encounter."
"Oh, you mean when Nick knocked over his cocoa and ruined Jeff's blazer and Jeff threw spaghetti at him?"
Nick felt his cheeks heat up almost instantly at hearing the true account on his first meeting with Jeff. He had been so nervous at his first talk to a classmate (especially since said classmate had very irritatingly insulted his hair and said he liked him in basically the same sentence), that he really had knocked over his cocoa, which made a light-brown puddle on the table and soaked through Jeff's blazer. Nick had found himself unable to stop apologizing, convinced that he had ruined everything and this boy would positively hate him for the rest of his life. When none of Jeff's reassuring words (that it wasn't that bad and things like that happened, he had siblings to prove it) had not gotten through to Nick, Jeff had seen no other way then to take a spoonful of his spaghetti and dump it affectionately on Nick's sleeve. When the brunette boy had stared at him in shock, Jeff had just taken his napkin to brush the noodles off Nick's arm, saying with a sheepish grin, "Now we're even. Can we please eat now? We only have like fifteen minutes before our next class starts."
Kurt grinned at Nick, who realized that though he was glad Kurt's mood had lightened up, he would have preferred not being the cause of it.
"You have a history of ruining blazers, haven't you?"
"How do you even know that?" Jeff asked Blaine indignantly.
Blaine blinked at him disbelievingly, "Everybody knows that. It's the second most awkward starting of a Warbler friendship we have." When Kurt looked at him inquiringly, he added, "It loses to Goran and Flint starting a discussion on gay porn as a literary genre during the very first Warbler auditions."
"I stand by my opinion that our first encounter was magical," Jeff retorted, staring at Blaine with a true look of indignation. Nick just sighed.
No, their first encounter had been anything but magical. But didn't that make the friendship they had now – and if it was up to Nick, would continue to have at least until their grandkids graduated from high school – even more amazing?
"Alright fellow Warblers," Wes said, while David and Thad ushered the boys to be silent. "After gathering feedback from our audience, I feel safe to claim that this performance was truly one of our..."
Wes' eyes narrowed suddenly.
"Nicholas Richard Williams, is that thing over your shoulder your Dalton blazer?"
Nick just groaned, ignoring Jeff's heartfelt laughter. This was going to be a long ride home.
A/N: I'm immensely, extremely, utterly, completely sorry it took me so long to update. I could tell you about university, my BA-thesis, ilnesses, laptops crashing down and taking half-written chapters (and university stuff) with them… but I guess you get the idea. But since I handed in my BA-thesis this morning, it's safe to say that from now on, updates will be more frequent.
About this chapter: I had to keep this one short, because there is just no way in hell that either Blaine or Kurt would ever talk about the sex-issues they discuss with each other to outsiders – not even to charming ones like Jeff and Nick. So yeah, this is more of an interlude – but don't worry: the next chapter will be considerably longer.
Next up is "Original Song", of course, though I'm not sure where to go from there. I thought a long time about how long this story was going to be, whether I should end with Original Song or add some Night of Neglect moments and a Somewhere Only We Know chapter... I'm still not sure. To me, OS will be kind of the end, basically because the end of the Original Song Chapter was actually the first thing about this story I wrote, and it still is my personal perfect ending. But it would be nice to add some closure AND write an explanation for Kurt's transfer back to McKinley (because as far as I could see, glee had none). We'll see.
I'm aware that this chapter is a bit more crappy than usual, but my two betas are both on vacation and I haven't slept properly since approximately 30 hours... But I really wanted to update. Again, I sincerely apologize for the delay. I hope just hope you're still with me and enjoy reading the story. Reviews are, as always, immensely appreciated – I loved each and every review I received for the chapter on BIOTA! I'm so glad you guys liked it!
To make up for the delay, I also wrote a one-shot about the time when Nick was ill and Jeff took care of him that's mentioned in this chapter. Anyone interested in that? It's not brilliant, but nice and fluffy.
Take care
~Nalasan