A/N: I did the lyrics this time like a conversation since it's a mashup (and would go on for pages and pages if I just posted it like I normally would). If you want to know the songs, they're "Forgiveness" by Leona Lewis (Mercedes) and "Not Ready to Make Nice" by The Dixie Chicks (Santana). They might not sound right together as a real mash-up, but the lyrics were what I wanted to get across.
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"What's going on, San?" Sam called out as he and Kurt entered the auditorium holding hands.
Today was the day they would be doing a full run through of their Nationals routines, and Santana had requested that both Sam and Kurt be there when the Troubletones did theirs. The group number was coming along nicely, and Puck's voice was great for the song they'd chosen.
Kurt had been surprised when he found out that Mercedes and Santana were singing on the Troubletones song, especially since Mercedes had offered to drop out.
Santana showed them both where to sit, in the front row.
Santana had told Sam that Mercedes had a message for the both of them. And she had agreed to have Mercedes sing with her on the Nationals number because of the message she wanted to send to Kurt and Sam.
Sam leaned over to Kurt, "San said they're doing a mash-up instead of a solo. Mercedes is singing too. San told me that her part of the mash-up is a message to her grandmother."
Kurt nodded, tears in his eyes already without even having heard the song. Santana's grandmother had asked her to leave after finding out that she was a lesbian and in love with Brittany. Her greatest wish was that her grandmother would love her again. So this song had a powerful message for her, even if her grandmother never heard it.
They watched as the Troubletones got into position, and the music began to play.
Mercedes walked from the back to the mic up front, and she placed both hands on it.
"I don't wanna spend another day, pointing fingers while I'm taking blame."
The Troubletones swayed with the music behind her, harmonizing, and Santana took a position at the second mic.
Mercedes continued singing, "I'm no angel, imperfect myself, cause baby I am only human."
Santana started in with her part of the mashup, "Forgive…sounds good. Forget, I'm not sure I could. They say, time heals everything, but I'm still waiting."
Mercedes started back with "And I don't wanna put it all on you, I admit I did some painful things it's true. And I'm sorry for them, no making amends."
Santana continued, "I'm through with doubt. There's nothing left for me to figure out. I've paid a price, and I'll keep paying."
Santana stepped forward and held her hand up, "Cause I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down. I'm still mad as hell, and I don't have time to go round and round and round."
Mercedes stepped beside her "Starting today, I'm gonna change. Don't wanna make the same mistakes, Cause I can see a new horizon. The ice around my heart is melting."
Santana walked across the stage confidently, "It's too late to make it right, I probably wouldn't if I could, Cause I'm mad as hell, Can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should."
Mercedes stalked across to the opposite side, "And the hurt I feel is slowly dying. Now I'm, no longer crying. The bridge we burnt is being built again. It's leading to a new beginning, and it may never be the way it was."
"And that's because I'm talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness"
They sang together for those lines, and Kurt felt a swelling in his chest. They always sounded so amazing together.
Mercedes swayed and looked at Sam and Kurt "I wish we could take back the things we said. Cause what we said's not always what we meant. We lost our heads in the moment, and the words we used them like a weapon.
"I know you said, can't you just get over it. It turned my whole world around, and I kind of like it," Santana purred into the mic.
Mercedes looked back at Santana, "But no one wins if we both walk away and we hid behind the people we became. We're warmer than that, we're better than that. And I still cherish all the things we had."
Santana smiled at Sam as she sang, "I made my bed and I sleep like a baby, with no regrets and I don't mind saying, it's a sad sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger…"
Mercedes broke in with part of Santana's song, "And how in the world can the words that I said, send somebody so over the edge, that they'd write me a letter, saying that I better, shut up and sing or my life will be oveeerrrr."
Santana started in with part of Mercedes's song, "Starting today, I'm gonna change, Cause I can see a new horizon. The ice around my heart is melting, and the hurt I feel is slowly dying."
"I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down. I'm still mad as hell and I don't have time to go round and round and round," Mercedes continued with Santana's song.
Santana spun in a circle and held out her hand, "Now I'm no longer crying, the bridge we burnt is being built again. It's leading to a new beginning, and it may never be the way it was."
Mercedes sang, "And that's because I'm talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness."
"I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down. I'm still mad as hell and I don't have time to go round and round and round," Santana continued.
Mercedes's voice rang back in with, "If everybody could forgive and forget. Think of all the time that we could spend, being friends. Think about all the lives we could change, and all the love we could make."
Santana continued, with the others backing her, "Baby how the world would be a better place. In the ennnndddd, ohhhhh!"
"It's too late to make it right, I probably wouldn't if I could. Cause I'm mad as hell, I can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should," Mercedes spun and held up her hand.
Santana walked to the front of the stage where Kurt and Sam sat and sang, "It's leading to a new beginning, and it may never be the way it was. And that's because I'm talking about forgiveness."
Mercedes echoed her with "Forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness."
Santana sang, "What it is you think I should."
They sang together on the final lines.
"Forgive, sounds good. Forget, I'm not sure I could. They say time heals everything, but I'm still waiting."
By the end of the song, Santana was crying, and Brittany was holding her on the stage. Kurt ran up the steps to the stage and grabbed her, pulling her into a strong hug.
"That was beautiful, Santana. You can let go of it. We're here for you," Kurt whispered. Brittany was crying and hugging both of them, and the rest of the Troubletones were teary eyed as well.
Kurt watched as Mercedes walked over to Sam.
"I'm sorry, Sam. I have no excuse for what happened and for my part in it. I don't know what happened to me. And I can't believe I stood by and didn't do anything," Mercedes broke down sobbing, and Kurt smiled as Sam pulled her into a hug.
Kurt let Brittany take over Santana's hug, and he walked over to Mercedes. He held out his arms, and he folded her into them while she sobbed.
"I'm so sorry, Kurt!"
Sam leaned down and kissed Kurt, mouthing "I love you" as his head dropped down.
"I love you too, Sam." Kurt whispered.
The Troubletones pulled everybody in to a group hug, while Santana and Mercedes sobbed in the middle.
"Okay ladies, you look gorgeous as always. But we have to deal with an issue here."
Santana sniffed and looked up, "What's wrong?"
"No sobbing allowed at Nationals," Kurt grinned. "You have to be able to run through this without turning into such emotional… girls," he shivered in mock disgust.
Santana laughed, and Brittany grinned before kissing Kurt on the cheek.
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"They were really good, Sam." Kurt pulled Sam into a hug and kissed him. "They might just show us up at Nationals."
They left the auditorium, but Sam stopped him near the main entrance to kiss him.
"No way. They will rock, but we will be even better," Sam grinned and turned the kiss into a deeper one, his tongue diving into Kurt's mouth.
"Well, if we could get a certain member of the duet partnership to understand that groping is not part of the choreography, we might get somewhere," Kurt replied.
"If the other partner would stop being so fucking hot and wearing tight jeans and shirts that can get taken off so easily, then the first partner might be able to concentrate better," Sam smirked and led Kurt out into the hallway.
They walked back to the choir room where the rest of the group was working on the group number for Nationals. Sam sat in the back and watched the members of New Directions as they danced.
They had plans to make for the Nationals trip, which was to Chicago this year. Mr. Martinez had been roped into being a chaperone, and that had been all Sam's idea. Coach Sylvester had also decided to go, since Mr. Schue was no longer a member of the faculty at McKinley.
He'd been fired at the end of the investigation due to improprieties of having Finn at his house at all hours of the night. Finn's mom had been unable to prove anything, since Finn refused to talk about his visits there. But at least Schue was gone now.
Finn had been at the hospital for two weeks now, and Carole said that he was improving somewhat. Kurt pretty much stayed out of it, and Sam was glad of that. Finn had done too much to both of them. Sam honestly, could care less what happened to him, but he knew that Kurt still felt a responsibility to him since they were step-brothers.
School was as normal as it would get for a same-sex couple, Sam figured.
He and Kurt still got stares of disapproval, but the normal bullying had pretty much stopped after the school had seen what had happened to Shane and his friends.
Shane hadn't been charged formally, but his reputation was shattered. He'd heard Mercedes talking in Glee about how they'd broken up because Shane couldn't realize that what he'd done was wrong. He blamed Sam and Kurt for all his scholarship opportunities being taken away from him. Instead of grasping that his own behavior had been just as much a part of it.
Kurt was in charge of the hotel reservations, and Sam was assisting. They had to deal with the same-gender room assignments and the issues with couples.
Kurt had grinned at Sam when he mentioned that Quinn and Rachel requested to share a room. It didn't mean anything of course, unless the girls actually admitted there was anything between them.
Blaine and Puck had requested a room together, of course, and they'd been able to slip past Coach Sylvester's wrath because she didn't know they had ever been a couple. She'd hunted down Kurt and showed him the room listing that had his own and Sam's names crossed out as roommate options.
Kurt hadn't told him everything they'd said, but Kurt admitted that he'd told Sue that since they were eighteen years old, they had every right to room together. Especially since Brittany and Santana were assigned together. Those two roomed together on every trip they'd been on for Glee or the Cheerios.
He didn't know what kind of power Kurt had over her, but by the end of the argument, Sam's and Kurt's names were back together on the roommate list. He wasn't sure he wanted to know how, but he was definitely going to avoid Sue for a while, until she stopped lactating with rage.
The last time he'd run into her, she'd moved on from calling him young Justin Taylor to the "Deflowerer of Sweet Porcelain." She'd also muttered that while she didn't think anybody was going to deserve her Porcelain, she'd decided that Sam was the least offensive of all the choices that Kurt could have made.
It made Sam perversely proud, actually.
Sam's thoughts turned to their life after Nationals and after graduation.
He and Kurt had decided to go spend some time with Sam's parents in Kentucky after graduation. Since they were both going to Kent State, they'd be able to see Kurt's family and friends more often. It had been Kurt's idea, and Sam was touched that he wanted to do this for both of them.
His family loved Kurt, but it would still be good for them to have more time together to get to know each other better.
They just had their summer orientation at KSU to go to part of the way through the summer, and then they were going back to Kentucky until a few weeks before they were to move in to their apartment.
Kurt's dad wasn't really happy with the idea of Kurt being in a dorm with possibly homophobic college students, so he'd offered to help with an apartment rental for the two of them. He laughed it off as being less expensive than it would have been had Kurt not taken the full scholarship, but Sam was pretty sure Burt would have done the same for Kurt even if he had to pay thousands of dollars a year for him to attend a school in New York.
Sam watched as his boyfriend walked through the choreography for the group number. Kurt and Puck were mimicking each other, and Puck was smirking at Kurt the entire time. Even Blaine looked like he was having fun rather than being irritated.
Sam was sure he'd pitch a fit over not getting a solo, but if he had, he'd done it in front of someone else. But he really couldn't argue with Puck getting a solo, especially if he wanted to play the supportive boyfriend card.
Not that he'd ever played it with Kurt.
Stop, Sam thought.
Kurt was with Sam now. He would just be wasting time to dwell on Blaine's behavior and his treatment of Kurt. Focusing on it would just make Sam angry.
Sam looked back at Kurt, who was smiling at him as he danced. He loved that about Kurt. His eyes would follow Sam and he would just smile at him.
Just to let Sam know that Kurt was happy.
He looked happy. Happier than Sam had ever seen him.
Kurt grinned now. Like all the time. He'd been through so much at this school, and they'd been through so much in their relationship, that it was wonderful to just see him happy.
Sam walked across the room towards Kurt and stopped him in mid spin with a kiss. Kurt's muffled protest died quickly, and Sam backed him up against the piano to deepen the kiss. Vaguely, he realized this probably wasn't the right time to attack Kurt, but he really didn't care at the moment.
Kurt was beautiful, and he was happy, and he was dancing, and Sam just needed a kiss. And that was pretty much all there was to it.
Sam registered catcalls behind him from the peanut gallery known as New Directions, but he smiled against Kurt's mouth and just ignored them.
Kurt muttered "Sam" against his mouth but he didn't fight the kiss. Kurt wrapped his arms around Sam and kissed him back with the passion that he usually only reserved for Sam when they were in bed together. If Sam didn't slow this down, Kurt might start stripping soon.
Not that Sam minded that. Nope. Not at all.
But Kurt would mind once he came to his senses and found himself half-naked in front of the Glee club members.
Kurt came to his senses and pulled back slightly. "What was that for?"
"I love you. You looked happy. I needed to kiss you," Sam shrugged.
Kurt nodded and laughed, "Sounds like a legitimate reason."
"I thought so."
It sounded like a perfectly acceptable reason to attack his boyfriend in the middle of rehearsal. Plus, he might just be a little horny. But he figured it was best to leave that part out.
"Damn guys, get a room," Puck laughed.
"We have one. At home," Kurt shot back, and then he covered his mouth when he realized what he'd announced to everyone.
"Baby, I love it when you blurt stuff out to me, but I don't think everybody else needed to know that we share a room," Sam laughed.
"Shut up," Kurt smiled at him and pulled him in for another kiss. "Besides, we don't share a room. You have one, you just refuse to sleep in it."
"Because I'd rather sleep with you," Sam whispered.
Brittany walked up to them and stood, staring at Kurt.
Sam turned his head to look at her, and her eyes were on Kurt's mouth. "Dolphin, I miss making out with you. You two kissing was so hot."
Santana slid into place beside her, "Yes, yes it was. Wanky. Kiss some more."
"No!" Kurt crossed his arms in defiance.
"Come on, you won't let us watch you have sex, and we've asked a bunch of times. It's only fair."
Britt pulled out her pout, which was something that did work on Kurt, as much as his boyfriend would like to deny it.
It didn't work as well as the Trouty Pout, but that was to be expected.
"We're not turning this into an episode of Queer as Folk, Santana," Kurt smirked.
"Ooooh. That sounds good. Let's go do that," Santana replied and licked her lips.
"Come on, baby. Kiss me. Your ex-girlfriend and mine want a show," Sam pouted.
"Samuel Evans. You are supposed to side with me," Kurt demanded.
"I do most of the time. But in this case, if I side with you, I don't get more kisses. That should explain it." Sam dipped his head and kissed Kurt's throat.
"Sam," Kurt glared.
"We can go to the auditorium, back where the mirror is," Sam whispered in his ear. "We can kiss for them, and then when they leave…."
"Remember how I said you didn't have to pay me for my help with Finn and Schue, and for my help with Shane, and for all the other stuff…." Santana grinned as she studied her fingernail.
"I see how it is. Point out that I owe you a favor, and then you bring out the whole voyeurism kink you have," Kurt shifted uncomfortably.
"You know you want to, baby. You want me right now. They just want to watch us kiss," Sam continued. "Just kissing…that's all."
"Technically that's not true. I want to watch you fuck. Britt wants to watch you fuck and then join in. We're settling for watching you kiss." Santana replied.
Sam grinned when Kurt's eyebrow arched nearly off his forehead.
"Sam, you are going to be in trouble for this," Kurt replied.
"I know. You can punish me later. Let's go make out for Britt and San," Sam grabbed his hand pulled Kurt towards the door.
"Where are you guys going?" Puck shouted from across the room.
"Apparently, I'm going to go make out with Sam while Satan and Britt watch," Kurt shouted back.
Brittany squealed with delight, and jumped up and down, clapping like crazy. Santana smirked and wrapped an arm around Britt's waist.
"Hey Trouty!" Puck shouted.
Sam stopped at the doorway, and looked at him. "What?"
Puck gestured for him to come over, and Sam walked over to him.
Puck ducked his head and whispered, "If Britt says 'Now, Santana,' get Little Dude's pants back on. Because she'll be all over him in about thirty seconds if you don't."