I feel like the worst person ever. I totally forgot all about this until yesterday morning. And then I was lazy filling out job applications so I didn't bother to update.
Lesson learned: Upload all chapters at once, because I'm a ditz and can't remember to do it once a week.
I'm really sorry for having you guys wait like, months on end for this. Omnyomnyomrawrz. Thank you thank you thank you for all your reviews. Ugh, I'm sooo sorry about the lack of update though. So here're the last three chapters!
"You should do this one," Blaine prompted, nudging Kurt with an encouraging smile. "It's rather - sexy."
"No, I think I'm good," he replied dryly, inspecting his nails meticulously.
"This is an ideal opportunity to broaden your horizons and expand your repertoire!" Rachel exclaimed. "Though I don't see why you're having trouble pulling off 'sexy'. You were quite proficient with your hip thrusting when we performed Push It, and I'm pretty sure you had Santana drooling over the intensity of your Four Minutes routine."
"That's a good key point, you know," Blaine pointed out. "If you want to be sexy, you shouldn't try too hard."
Kurt's face flamed a brilliant crimson as he shifted uncomfortably, glaring viciously at the floor.
"Well, I at least will use this opportunity to develop my repertoire."
Rachel stood up and sauntered over to the television, standing before them with her eyes glued to the screen as she tried to imitate Demeter. She was rolling her hips rather awkwardly, trying to swish them in a circular motion but finding her movement too stiff to be provocative. She frowned, leaning a bit closer to the television in hopes that watching more closely would somehow give her a hint at perfecting her technique.
"Just pretend you're using a hula hoop," Blaine suggested, shrugging his shoulders. Kurt rolled his eyes and paused the movie, sighing dramatically as he made his way over to Rachel.
"You have to slid a bit more," he started, pointing to her hip. "We went over this in Cheerios practice. Coach said you need to think of your hips as a Pendulum - that blade that the Spanish Inquisition used to torture people, that swings back and forth as it's lowered onto a persons chest?"
With that, Kurt rewound the scene; as it played back, he imitated the choreography perfectly, swishing his hips in a low arc as he spun them in a circle. Rachel scrutinized Kurt's moves, her gaze intent as she watched him.
"He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard / the flying squads despair / but when they reach the scene of crime / Macavity's not there." Kurt was slowly loosing himself in the act, getting rather sensual as he copied their seductive moves. He was - touching himself in such an intimate sort of way, spinning in a slow circle as his hips rolled, letting the movement direct him. He gave a rather flirtatious come hither shake of his behind as the song continued. "Macavity macavity there's no one like Macavity / he's broken every human law / he breaks the law of gravity / his powers of levitation would make a fakir stare / and when you reach the scene of crime / Macavity's not there."
Rachel had stopped her own attempts to follow Kurt's lead, instead merely standing in surprised shock at how fluid Kurt's dancing was. Her voice trailed off as she became hypnotized by Kurt's performance. She wasn't the only one frozen numb by his displays. Blaine gaped, eyes fixed upon the smooth grace of Kurt's body.
"Macavity's a ginger cat / he's very tall and thin / you would know him if you saw him / for his eyes are sunken in / his brow is deeply lined with thought / his head is highly domed / his coat is dusty from neglect / his whiskers are uncombed / he sways his head from side to side / with movements like a snake / and when you think he's half asleep / he's always WIDE AWAKE!"
Rachel managed to find her voice in time to catch up with Bombalurina's song, her voice providing a strong and solid sway of lyrics as Kurt imitated her performance. He was slinking from the television to the couch, his arms flowing with an elegant snap as he stopped in front of Blaine. His head rolled from one side to the other, as if he were trying to fix a kink in his neck.
"He's outwardly respectable," Kurt broke in, running a hand down his body and flicking his wrist outward, reaching both arms above his head as he swayed.
"I know he cheats at cards," Rachel claimed smugly, striding towards him with sinuous poise.
"And his footprints are not found in any files of Scotland Yard." She seemed to have study plenty of Kurt's hands-on visual learning, and was proving herself to be quite an adept student. She'd learned quickly, mimicking the hip rolling perfectly in sync with the boy beside her.
Blaine was taken aback, enraptured by Kurt's movement. After the debacle with their Animal performance, he had questioned whether Kurt was truly capable of seduction. He was adorable, he was romantic, he was charming - but he tried to hard to be alluring. And yet here he was, once again proving Blaine wrong in his concluded ideas. Kurt was so full of surprises, and Blaine was absolutely enthralled.
"Macavity Macavity / there's no one like Macavity / there never was a cat / of such deceitfulness and suavity / he always has an alibi / and one or two to spare / whatever time the deed took place / Macavity's not there!"
Their movements were a perfect mirror - hand sliding over head, trailing from shoulder to hip. They twisted their hips and spun around, arms at their sides as they shook their behinds in a coaxing half-swagger meant to ensnare an audience, their shoulders shaking in tandem.
There was a slight pause before Demeter and Bombalurina jumped into the gossip of those who worked for the mysterious Macavity. Kurt had been keenly tracking Rachel's dancing, and nodded in approval before flouncing back to the couch, flinging himself beside Blaine as if nothing had happened.
Blaine shifted, glad to still be holding the pillow on his lap he had snagged as a prop from his Skimbleshanks number.
"So," Rachel started as the wild Macavity jumped onto the stage. He was like lightening, jagged stripes and frayed static hair, snatching Demeter and attempting to kidnap her. "Do you think he wants her because he's really evil or just jealous?"
"Backstory of Macavity now?" Kurt drawled, faking his disdain. "We're really going to analyze every character?"
"The entire point of this musical is to analyze the characters," Rachel shot back, sniffing condescendingly. "Like the real world, the characters have clear personalities, even if you have to dig around under the surface of their actions and read between the lines of their lyrics to understand them. But the relations they have with each other aren't defined - it's all based on the creative license of the actors to interpret how to convey the characters choreography and facial expressions and song. There is no distinct connection between them all - it's not all black and white, it's shades of gray. The audience is suppose to question the relations between the characters and, perhaps, apply these relations to their own life to reveal something meaningful about themselves."
"That's deep," Kurt said dryly. She smacked him lightly, urging him back to her question.
"So then. Do you think Demeter had a fling with Macavity and regretted it? Or do you think that Macavity took advantage of her and she has to live with the consequences?"
Kurt tensed. On screen, Macavity had entered the scene, and was being attacked as the Jellicle tribe moved in to protect their own. They were jumping upon him, scratching at him, chasing him away. It all had a film noir feel to it - seductive, dark, enigmatic. Intimate, ominous, secretive.
It reminded him of Karofsky, of having his first kiss stolen from him. The shame of that snap moment where it had felt good because all his mind could think of for that split second was that a boy - sturdy, firm, masculine - was kissing him. And the tsunami of fear and terror and horror that had swallowed him up, that had rushed out of his initial shock to push Karofsky away. If that was what had happened between Demeter and Macavity - he understood that, her standoffish ways, her distant attitude. Pushing others away.
But her family had come through and saved her. And it hurt to wonder what that would have been like - to have told them what had really happened, in the locker room. To have them stand up for him, to help him, to save him.
But that wasn't what had happened.
He hadn't trusted them to do anything, so he hadn't seen the point in bothering to mention it. Puck had been a bully, once upon a time. Finn had done the same, had said hurtful things, had done nothing to stop others from picking on him. His own brother hadn't even stood up for him when the others did, so why would they in any case?
In some twisted way, he figured that it wasn't really any different than what had been happening to begin with. It had only escalated - and wasn't that what was going to have happened anyway? Things like bullying always got worse, moving from verbal to physical to sexual. It was expected.
"Maybe he did take advantage of her. Maybe he tried to get her back because he was jealous," he agreed bitterly, thinking back to when Blaine had come to McKinley to stand up to Karofsky with him and had been hurt because Karofsky had lashed out. "It would be nice to think that maybe he just wants her back because they had some sort of moment that was consensual. It would also be nice to say he's just pure evil and doesn't care if he hurts others because he's selfish. But like you said - it's not all black and white. Life isn't that easy."
Nothing was ever that simple. Karofsky was ruled by fear - just like every other insecure person in the world. He was afraid of stepping outside the box, of being looked upon differently, pressured by his peers. It was a sad state of being, he thought.
And suddenly Kurt felt so grateful to have found safety at Dalton, where they treated him like everyone else. They listened, and tried to encourage him to let himself be normal. He didn't have to scream for attention - he could sit and talk and discuss like everyone else and be heard and listened to; he wasn't pushed away or ignored. He was different, with his love of show tunes, and that was alright because they all had quirks - but such things were accepted, and they knew how to put them aside to work as a team; they supported each other without complaint or force or obligation. Of course there were disagreements, but there wasn't any drama going along with it.
It was good to feel like he was one of them without trepidation or having to fight for a place there.
And even if that's not how the real world worked, it was nice to feel at ease, if only for the while.
"Macavity's not there."