AN: Aaargh, sorry to be so late updating, but this would let me write only so far and then just stop dead in its tracks and look at me with this "yeah, I'm giving you writer's block, whatcha going to do about it, anyway?" smirk.
Hope you like the ending.
School the next morning was like Bizarro World for Dave Karofsky. Some of the Gleeks actually came up to him voluntarily and thanked him for saving Hummel. Even when he grunted that he was saving his own ass there, some of them even repeated their thank you. Okay, Brittany Piers asked if it was true that he got Kurt out of a bottle of wine, he answered, "Not really," and he realized two periods later that she was probably thinking about The Cask of Amontillado that they'd read in English. The world was just plain twisted when something she said was one of the easier things for him to figure out.
The other weird thing was that Azimio was avoiding him. Karofsky caught up with him at lunch and asked what the hell was up with that.
"You lied to me, man. All that time that you realized you were-" he looked around and lowered his voice, "that you were that, and you never told me. You even lied to me."
"I didn't want to. Look, I'm sorry, but can you blame me for not wanting to say it?"
Azimio stared him straight in the eyes. "Yes. Shit, dude, you were scared of what I'd think and that just ain't right."
Karofsky wouldn't have let anybody say that he was scared of anything, not even Azimio, but he had to admit that it was right. He wasn't just waiting until he got over it, wasn't just embarrassed, but he was scared. And he was still scared. Not that he was going to talk about it. "So then what was up with my parents, where you were all thumbs up?"
"I was glad that your family was okay with it, but it's just going to take me some time to be okay with it."
Fair enough, he guessed, but it still felt weird and wrong to be going through the halls without his brother from another mother right there.
He was late getting to the locker room for gym class and could hear Azimio laying down the law about something through the doors. "-so it was like some freaking after school special thing or whatever, but anyway, it bugged me seeing somebody half-dead because of who his father is, you know? So anyway, what I'm saying now is that nobody gets slushied or shoved or dumpstered because they like boys." It was the first time that day at school that Karofsky actually smiled a real smile. It would take his man Azimio a while, maybe, but they'd get back there, eventually.
When he got home that afternoon, he was part of a group text from Hudson. He wasn't sure what he thought of that, but it was still good to know. Hummel was going to be kept another night in the hospital for more observation and safe refeeding, whatever that was, but he was doing better than anybody had expected. When Karofsky's mom asked how Kurt was and he told her, that was when she said that he should visit.
"Uh-"
"Of course you should."
"If your friend is sick, you should bring him flowers." That was Stacey and he really didn't need a seven-year-old advising him. "That's what people do."
"That's a nice idea, dear."
"Mom, I'm really not the flowers type."
"But he might be," she said with an air of certainty that was starting to give him the creeps up and down his spine. Was his own mother trying to set him up with Kurt?
"You should totally get him flowers," Stacey concluded. "I'll go to the store with you and help you pick them out."
His dad came home early and Dave thought that was the moment he was being rescued, but all his own father did was say, "Never argue with both women in your life, kiddo."
Karofsky heaved a martyred sigh. Not that he didn't want to see Hummel, but hospitals sucked and it would be awkward. On the other hand, Stacey was staring at him and he really had been crappy with her lately, so...
At the store, it was a struggle to steer her away from the roses, irises, and other Valentiney flowers. It was a struggle like the ocean is a bit damp, but he pulled the trump card of "I think he'd like these" to get her to agree to a simple bouquet of tulips. In Econ, they'd been reading about the tulip mania, so it was almost like an inside joke.
After dropping her back home, he drove to the hospital. When he got to Hummel's room, he could hear voices and so took a quick look in. Kurt's dad was dozing in a chair next to the window and the place looked like a flower shop, but what made Karofsky stay in the doorway was the guy sitting next to Kurt, holding his hand, and they were looking into one another's eyes like it was some kind of Disney movie. Seriously, he wouldn't have been surprised if there had been pink hearts circling their heads. It was that private school kid he'd called Kurt's boyfriend earlier and it looked like his taunt had been right on the mark.
"When I saw the paper on the plane, I almost ran up the aisle to tell the pilot to go faster," the guy was laughing softly and shaking his head.
"That'd get you on the terrorist watch list."
"The Terrorist of Love," the guy exaggerated, sounding so relieved to have something to laugh at that he'd laugh at anything.
"It'll teach you to go camping. In the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Roughing it should mean a hotel with only three stars."
The guy actually leaned in to kiss Hummel and Dave had had enough. This stung and he just wanted to get out of there. He looked around, saw an old woman sitting in a wheelchair, handed her the tulips without a word, and left.
He wasn't exactly hurrying out since he didn't want to go home quite yet. He heard somebody running behind him and then his name. "Dave? Dave Karofsky?"
Great, just what he needed, Mr. Prep. "Yeah?"
"I wanted to say hello."
"Hello." Fine, good for you, now go away.
"If you wanted to talk to Kurt, I didn't mean to monopolize him, I only saw you were there a second ago."
"Naah. My mom wanted me to check on him and he's looking okay."
"He is going to be fine, thanks to you." Why did this guy have to be so smooth and polished and looking so damned perfect for Kurt? Even his height was right. He bet that this guy cooked like a dream, probably spoke ten languages, knew about all the kinds of stuff that Kurt liked, and was a perfect gentleman except when Kurt didn't want him to be one. And that was something Karofsky didn't want to think about.
He finally said something. "Look, you won, Kurt picked who he wants to be with, and no contest, really, the one who's always pushed him around or, well, you. But I'm not interested in that whole 'let's be friends thing' with you, since, well, I just don't." Don't want to be the one you look at like you're sorry for me, don't want you being so inhumanly polite to me.
"I understand."
"Bet?" Was this guy some kind of Perfect Gay Boyfriend robot?
The guy fished out his phone and tapped it a few times. "Just in case you ever..." he held the phone out to Dave. "His name is Greg. And he's single."
Karofsky was about to take the phone and make Perfect Gay Boyfriend need an app for getting the phone out of his ass, when he noticed that Greg was well, kind of hot. Not entirely his type, and he didn't much like the idea of going out with somebody who was friends with PGB, but, well...there are lots of good fish in the sea. And besides, once Azimio came around entirely, he'd have somebody helping him look. There wasn't much that you can't accomplish with a good friend.
