Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Opposites may attract and drive each other a little crazy, but together they can make satisfactory decisions despite their divergent attitudes.

-Unknown

Sam really didn't want to sound ungrateful, but he slowly started to dislike belonging to the most popular group at school. The first weeks were pretty awesome, admittedly. No more slushie facials, people actually knew his name, even the hot cheerios started greeting him on the hallways regularly.

But all that slowly started to feel so…wrong. He never had noticed how mean and condescending the hot cheerios were. Or that the majority of the jocks on the football team were superficial and kind of simple minded. Yes, he was aware that he wasn't the brightest candle on the cake himself, but those guys didn't even have a shred of common sense. Except for Mike Chang, of course.

The thing that concerned him the most was the behavior of his best friend. Blaine was one of the nicest, most modest, and most grounded people Sam knew. His initial mission was to push Kurt off his high horse to teach him a lesson and free McKinley from his reign of terror (Blaine's words, not his, mind you). Blaine's mission was to make McKinley a better place for all the outsiders and nerds the cheerios and jocks treated like trash. At first, Blaine continued to treat said outsiders somewhat human, berated the other popular kids when they got slushied. He even gave Dottie a hug after she got pushed into the lockers by one of the cheerios.

But then, things started changing. At first, it was just the little things. How he threw Sam a disgusted glance when he was biting into his greasy cheeseburger during lunch break, for instance.

"Do you have any idea how many calories this thing has?", Blaine commented when he saw Sam's questioning frown.

"But you love burgers", Sam pointed out. Seriously, that boy had literally inhaled three Deluxe Hamburgers at that diner last week after the Avengers con they had gone to.

"Well", Blaine answered while he cut the tomato of his otherwise bland salad "I changed my mind. My hips won't forgive me for those extra carbs."

Sam couldn't believe what he had just heard. Looking at Blaine's physique, Sam came to the conclusion that he had nothing to worry about.

But that wasn't even the worst thing Blaine had done. When classes were over and Sam went to search his best friend so that they could go home together, he spotted him in the hallways around the corner. Outside, the raindrops hammered against the window panes. Ugh, the weather sucked for weeks now, despite the anchor's prediction... Just when Sam was about to go over to him, Kurt crossed ways with the former prep schooler.

Blaine scoffed quietly at him.

Annoyed, Kurt halted and turned around. "What?" He sounded resigned.

"Is that a Ralph Lauren from the last season?", Blaine asked with cocked eyebrows.

Kurt tiredly looked down his pullover. "Yes. Is that a problem?"

"Aw, how pathetic. And I always thought that a spot-on outfit was important to you", Blaine mocked him with a malicious smirk. "That is embarrassing, isn't it?"

"Well, Blaine, since my so-called friends kicked me out of my own con artistry business, I'm too broke to buy clothes of the latest collections. Plus, I stopped working at dad's garage because I need to study more to get my grades up again so that Coach Sylvester lets me be on the cheerio team again."

He was surprised when Blaine laughed at that. "Don't be naïve. We both know that you can forget the cheerios. It's over for you, so get used to it."

Sam kind of expected that Kurt would bitch back or at least somehow strike back, but instead, the brunet just sighed tiredly. "Look, I'm not in the mood for this right now. I turned into the school's laughingstock, lost all of my friends, got kicked out of the cheerleading team, and worked all night to write essays for extra credits, all I want to do is go home and wallow in self-pity. Can you just…please stop rubbing in my face that your life goes great and mine doesn't? You already won, stop the act."

"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about." Blaine smiled at him innocently. "But hey, don't worry. Next time I slushie you, I will make sure to choose the grapefruit slushie to brighten up your schoolday."

"But I hate grapefruit", Kurt pointed out.

"Yes, I know. Have a nice day, Kurt", Blaine cooed mock-friendly before he walked off.

"You have changed, Blaine", Kurt said behind him. "You did a full one eighty, and not in a good way. Just think about it."

Blaine just rolled his eyes and left the building.

Even after he was gone, Sam looked after his best friend in shock. There was some truth to Kurt's words. They had all noticed how Blaine slowly but surely changed. The popularity at school was not doing him good. Blaine's initial plan was to eliminate the thing he hated the most. But instead of doing so, he became the very same thing he swore to destroy. He became a second Kurt Hummel.

Awesome.

…

Kurt meant what he had said in there: All he wanted was to drive home and bury his face in his pillow for the rest of the week. He knew himself how unrealistic it was, his dad would never allow that, but one could dream, right? Just when he walked to his car through the rain, he caught a glimpse of a certain red-haired woman that took cover behind the bike station of his school. With a frown, he walked towards said woman.

"What do you think you're doing?", he hissed at Dr. Applebaum angrily. The woman looked up, startled.

"I…I can explain", she stammered quickly.

Kurt crossed his arms when he looked down the notepad in her hands. "Oh, really? Alright, I'm all ears."

She cleared her throat nervously. "It's not what it looks like, I promise. All I want to do is help. I've been watching you and your dark-haired friend-"

"-he's not my friend", Kurt pressed between gritted teeth.

"Your friend and you, you have no idea how special you are", Dr. Applebaum added. "I've been researching the phenomenon of the gifted duo for years and…"

"Stop right there", Kurt cut her off "Gifted duo? What are you talking about?"

"Have you ever heard of those inexplicable phenomena? That pairs of people get powers, but no one knows how exactly? Or why? It's been happening for centuries, probably since the very first humans came into existence. Each generation has a gifted duo. And this generation happens to have you and your friend."

Kurt started massaging his temples. He remembered how Sam had tried to tell him about those people that had gained complement powers in the past, but he hadn't believed him.

But now, he didn't know what to believe anymore. He never said it out loud, but his powers started to scare him. When he had just talked to Blaine in the hallway, he had felt something. Cockiness, arrogance, boastfulness – emotions that weren't his. That was what Blaine was feeling, which was weird. Blaine hadn't struck him as a snob.

Dr. Applebaum looked up the sky with a frown. For days now, it had been raining, dark clouds were covering the otherwise blue sky over Lima.

"Look, kid, I know what you are thinking. I'm one of those evil scientists that wants to put you in my lab to experiment on you cruelly and stuff. But no, that's not the case. I'm only trying to understand all this. All I want is help you. I still don't know how, but I will find a way."

Kurt was still not convinced. "Why? What do you get out of this?"

The female scientist smiled faintly. "My great grandpa used to be a part of a gifted duo; did you know that?"

"No way."

"Yes. He and his brother were the fire and ice duo. My parents never believed it, but I was fascinated by those two ever since I was a child. I made it my mission to be able to explain that phenomenon one day. And to help people like them. People like you."

Kurt just stared at her.

"Hey, I know that's a lot to take in. But if you agree to letting me do some small tests with you at my lab a couple of times a week, I could probably help you more instead of sneaking around and collect data behind your backs. I won't do any tests that are painful to you, and you can say no whenever you feel uncomfortable. Of course, all my findings will be treated discreetly, and if you don't believe me, we can both sign an NDA. If you need time to think about it, you-"

"I will do it", Kurt cut her off again. "You may do all your tests on me."

Dr. Applebaum widened her eyes in surprise. "Are you -are you sure? I don't want to force you into something without giving you the chance to sleep over it."

Kurt nodded. "You don't. But I have one condition."

"Which is?"

"You will help me get rid of my powers."

…

She blinked at him twice. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me right", Kurt said "I don't want those powers. I never asked for this, and I refuse to be part of some magical duo, especially if my 'better half' is someone as obnoxious as Blaine Anderson."

"Young man, something…incredible happened to you, a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity, and you just want to throw it away?" She looked stunned. And somewhat disappointed.

Not that Kurt cared.

"Do you have any idea how hard being a queer teenager in a homophobic town is? I was five years old when someone called me the f-slur for the first time. Yes, five. Nevertheless, I made my way up the foodchain in highschool until everyone respected me – until the only other gay boy, the one who should be on my side at school, destroys it for me. And to crown it all, I'm a goddamn freak too!" He was almost yelling at this point.

Dr. Applebaum sighed deeply. "I think I know how you feel, kid."

"How?! How could you possibly know?"

"I know what it feels like to be different from the others. I grew up in some lame hicktown in Iowa, in the eighties. My sister and I were the only mixed kids in the entire school – scratch that, in the entire city. We were too white for the black kids and too black for the white kids, we didn't know where we belonged."

"And on top of that, I was a closeted bisexual. Not even my closest friends knew about that, cause telling anyone equaled signing my death warrant. Whenever I had a girlfriend, I couldn't boast about her in front of my conservative family and friends. Being a queer woman of color in a super racist and queerphobic town was hell, let me tell you that. But I was and still am proud of who I am. Yes, there were some days where I wished that my interest in women would just disappear, or that my skin was lighter and my hair less curly, but now, I entirely embrace being different. I go to pride parades, and I'm married to a wonderful woman. I stopped flattening my kinky hair. I am who I am, and I wouldn't change anything about it."

"What I want to say is that your abilities are a gift. Yes, there will be complications in life because of who you are, but who said that life was supposed to be a walk in a park? You are special, you are unique, and you just want me to take that away from you? That would be a shame, don't you think?"

Kurt looked at her pensively. "I … "

"You just don't want those powers because you want to be like everybody else. You want them gone, just like I wanted my curls gone. You want me to use a hair straightener on your beautiful curls. That sounds wrong, but if that's your wish, I won't object. I just want you to think about it." She retrieved something from her purse which she gave to him. A piece of paper with her phone number.

"Call me if you have time and we can make the first tests."

With that, she turned around and left Kurt alone with his thoughts. He didn't notice how the rain got stronger, and how he got completely drenched.

…

Mercedes slipped back into the now empty classroom because she forgot her history book at her seat. She was surprised when someone was leaning against one of the desks.

"Searching for this?" Sam held her book in his hands and threw it over to her.

Thanks to her crappy reflexes, she couldn't catch it in time. Cursing, she picked it up. "What was that for, Samuel?", she huffed.

"Can we talk?"

Mercedes checked her watch, already annoyed. "Why?" She already had a date with her TV and a bucket of Ben and Jerry's at home. She knew that Coach Sylvester was going to yell at her again because of those extra calories and threaten to kick her out of the team again. She was going to enjoy her cookie dough ice cream anyway.

"It's about Kurt. And Blaine."

She groaned. "Kurt and I are no longer friends. And I don't care much for Blaine."

When she wanted to go past him, Sam touched her arm shortly. "Have you noticed the rain out there?"

Yes, she had. For weeks now, the weather has been horrible. Rain nonstop, not a sunbeam to be seen. It was depressing.

"So?"

"What if I tell you that they are causing this?"

Mercedes so wasn't in the mood for this. "Goodbye, Sam."

"Just think about it, Mercedes!", he said quickly before she was out the door. "Their powers are linked to each other. And Blaine told me they are getting stronger every day. What if they are now able to control the weather?"

"That doesn't even make any sense", she commented with a roll of her eyes. "Why should they make it rain on purpose? All week long? That's not in their interest, I assume."

"What if they are not doing this on purpose?", Sam theorized. "We already know that they have a connection to each other since the accident. But we also now that they hate each other's guts. And since they are unable to live with each other in harmony…"

Mercedes' eyes widened. "Shit. The rainstorm reflects their everlasting feud, right?"

Sam nodded. "And if their abilities get stronger, who knows what they will be capable of doing? What if they will accidently destroy entire cities one day?"

"That's…that's nonsense. It will never come that far. Right?" When he didn't answer immediately, Mercedes repeated anxiously: "…right?"

"Not if we put an end to this", Sam answered, determined. "Yes, I know that you are mad at Kurt and that he probably messed up-" -He cringed internally at those words. Dammit, he just couldn't believe he seriously helped Blaine drive a wedge between those two - "But. He is still your best friend. You cannot throw that away. Besides, you are the only person he listens to."

Mercedes gnawed her lower lip. "What is even your plan?"

"We need to make sure Kurt and Blaine become friends somehow. They both clearly can't control their powers, obviously because they don't harmonize. But once they befriend, they will help each other. And the storm will finally end."

"Okay. And how will we do that?", she wanted to know.

Sam just grinned at her. "Let me tell you."