AN: I start a new job on Monday, so updates for ALL stories might be a little delayed, some potentially more than others. NTM fans might be excited to note that I finished the preliminary draft of the final chapters. Now unless I pull what I have for the last several, I just need to read through it again, make sure it all fits and then release. I have a high expectation though that I will be overhauling at least 1 chapter that hasn't been released yet. Sad note for TMYLM, I know what I want to write, I just haven't gotten there. I have this dangerous animal around me called a plot bunny and I'm a bit more of an Alice than Alice, I'm going to follow it, of course.
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Chapter 5
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The next day, Kurt drove them up to the front parking lot and the boys were all there waiting with smiles. Burt got out of the passenger seat to exchange roles with Kurt when he drove back to wherever they were from.
The boys whistled and called out to him like a bunch of saps, or like Kurt was famous and they were trying to get his attention. Burt was actually somewhat amused and felt himself melting a little. They liked his son, like, genuinely liked him and wanted to spend time with him, were including him. They'd had no concerns with Burt knowing their names because they didn't think they'd ever have to hide from Burt or feel his wrath. Granted, they were rich boys and had all the privileges in the world but they didn't know Burt or anything about him or the family.
Despite how close they'd gotten in a month, he doubted Kurt had shared all that much with them. Kurt even in the best of times was reserved with what he told people about himself. He had no problem listening and asking follow up questions or digging deeper or talking about things but very little about himself. People may not be able to feel like they really knew Kurt if they were just going to list a bunch of facts. However, if they thought about it for long enough, most really knew Kurt or knew the important stuff, the heart of him.
"Dad!" Kurt's exasperated gasp was for once ignored by Burt Hummel as he walked up to the boys waiting for them. He measured them all thoroughly and made them recognize it too for what it was. Kurt was totally embarrassed and he walked up to them as well, tugging on his dad's sleeve, trying to get him to stop and leave. The boys stood slightly straighter with Burt's presence near them. There was a cocky grin on one boy's lips, an overly open and enthusiastic one on another and just a relaxed one on the third.
Burt already knew how he felt about the first two. They could still surprise him but he was pretty sure he had both pegged. He thought he read the third one as well, but just wanted to push a little bit more to see if his assumptions were correct. "David, right?"
The relaxed one wasn't quite as relaxed anymore, it took on an edge of uncertainty. "Yes sir." He liked Kurt, it was written in his body language, but he wasn't as overly enthused as the others. He was happy to see Kurt but not joyously excited with a specific kind of interest that was in the eyes of the other two.
He was also a bit more reserved. Burt reflected he and Kurt were probably very similar in that way but Burt's eyes narrowed. He doubted he and Kurt had much else in common. He seemed like a decent kid, would always treat Kurt respectfully at the very least. "I'm putting you in charge while Kurt's on these grounds. Mostly to keep these two in line."
"I've already been doing that, sir." David spoke with respect, class and respect for elders apparent in his face, but he also wouldn't hold back on the truth. But David was also a teenage boy and probably had a lot of other parts to his personality that Burt wasn't given a glimpse of here and now. But it was still a good start and a lot less threatening to an overly protective parent than the other two with him.
"Good." Burt held out his hand and shook it again.
Sebastian had one eyebrow cocked up as he watched the interaction. Blaine hadn't paid it much attention other than greet the older man formally and then slipped his arms around Kurt's shoulders from behind. Sebastian realized he'd lost out on an opportunity to do the same because he was spending too much time gauging Burt's presence and behavior.
"Sebastian, Blaine." He greeted the other two now, dislike clear when he glanced at Blaine's position around Kurt. "Kurt, I'll see you at our usual time."
Kurt nodded and swallowed, trying to be more active in his recovery. "Ok." It did sound a little worse than yesterday though and Blaine rubbed his arm in compassion, hoping it didn't hurt in the way that it sounded. A faint frown fell into Burt's eyes and brows and Kurt tried to reassure him. "Ok." He emphasized.
Burt reluctantly nodded and hesitated to hold out his arms, unsure what Kurt would do with his friends present. He opened them anyway for a hug, offering even if Kurt didn't accept it. He'd always offer even if Kurt never accepted it again. Kurt pulled away from under Blaine's arms to go into his father's embrace.
The hug was short but a soothing balm for Burt. He released his son and put his hands on his son's shoulders, squeezed while looking into his face and then headed back to the truck. "Have a good day!" He called over his shoulder as he got in and with a few short actions, was out of the lot.
Sebastian dropped his arm over Kurt's shoulders this time and grinned at Blaine's put out face. "Come on doll face, we've got class."
Kurt stopped and made a face and pushed Sebastian's arm off of him. One hand went to his hip and the other had a finger pressing against Sebastian's chest. Oh he was not happy.
Sebastian tried a disarming smile, a little unsure and also meant to be calming while his hands were up in peace. Kurt didn't buy into it. His face changed into one of concern. "Ok, ok, sorry, what did I do?"
Kurt gestured at his face and lifted a brow high.
"Oh." Sebastian's tone dropped and he knew he did wrong. "I'm sorry. I've got random nicknames for everyone. Some of them are a little on the offensive side without realizing it." Some were on purpose. "Was it the doll of the doll face you didn't like?" Kurt's face squished up in dislike. "Or just doll face in general?" After a beat, Sebastian nodded. "Ok, no doll or doll face. Is it a no nickname policy or just got to keep trying until we settle on one you're ok with?"
Kurt's lips pressed together as he thought about it and then gave a shrug, accepting a nickname as long as it was something he was fine with. He pushed himself to speak again, it had gotten too familiar to just not try. "Maybe."
"Cool." Sebastian nodded his agreement and made a futile movement with his hands, not sure if it was ok to touch him again. Kurt rolled his eyes and linked his arm with Sebastian's and continued their walk into the building.
Blaine moodily followed behind and David poked him in the ribs. "I'm not for either of you making moves on Kurt but if you're going to compete, compete. Don't just sit here wallowing." And then complaining about it after the fact.
Blaine jumped a little at the poke and heard what David had to say. "Yeah, you're right!" His face brightened and he literally skipped as he caught up with the others. David shook his head, what was he doing, encouraging this? He didn't have to watch though and slipped away to go find Wes. He was likely at breakfast still. David could eat again.
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Blaine and Sebastian were literally dragging Kurt into the choir room a few days later. They each had an arm and were in front of him. His feet were out front and his body was leaning away but he couldn't overpower them when they worked together. He didn't look like he was freaking out at least, just resisting.
"It's going to be fine Kurt, they'll be cool with it." Blaine said and Kurt shook his head in disagreement and denial.
"What are you two doing?" Wes asked from the podium with Thad and David on either side of him. It was clear that he wanted to add a few more choice words, mostly descriptions of his perception of their characters. They wouldn't have been very nice words.
By now the Warblers had all met Kurt many times over. Nick and Jeff had joined their little merry band of misfits when Burt dropped Kurt off in the morning. Kurt was beginning to think all the boys here were just different filters of the same person. They were all extremely upbeat and energetic and talked, a lot.
He glanced at Sebastian, well, maybe not all of them. Then his gaze slid over David and the other council members, no, he was wrong. He'd freely admit it; if he'd said it to anyone but himself, that was. They were just all teenage boys, even Finn and Sam fit into the broad strokes of descriptions of the ones he'd met here. Some of the other ND boys might have too if he wanted to think harder about it.
With a huff, he finally freed himself of his friends' hands. He crossed his arms over his chest but he didn't stalk out and leave. He was pretty sure that they'd just grab him and pick him up this time to keep him there. He'd rather avoid that if he could. He wasn't sure how he'd react to be lifted off his feet by several boys at once. He swallowed down the acidic taste in his throat just from even thinking about it happening. He'd probably trigger that himself if he wasn't careful with his thoughts.
He didn't get why he was here any more than the council did.
"We want Kurt to join!" Blaine said enthusiastically, bouncing on his toes and spinning to the council all at the same time.
"Uh..." David and Wes shared a look but Thad was willing to hear them out.
"I know, I know, not the singing." Blaine waved off as unimportant but for an acapella group, that was kind of a big deal.
Sebastian cleared his throat, looking far too pleased with himself and took over a bit more calmly than Blaine. "He's got dance skills, you've seen him move." They hadn't but knowing Sebastian it was probably something to do with the way Kurt walked or something. "He can just mouth along to the song and dance with us."
"We're Warblers, songbirds." Wes cut across the boys' excitement, many in the room had started talking in agreement with Sebastian's thoughts. "We sing. Dancing is only a secondary thing. We could go on stage and probably win just standing there in a formation."
David put a hand on Wes' shoulder to stop him from going on a bigger rampage. He caught Kurt still looking defiant near the doorway. He'd been the one to tell Kurt that he'd always have a place here as a de facto Warbler. Kurt hadn't exactly ever taken him up on that though. Other groups were still trying to entice him but he'd have to stick around long enough after class to do so. His dad was probably already waiting for him in the parking lot. He didn't want Wes to upset Kurt unnecessarily. The others were already looking deflated and dejected. They had all liked that idea. "Did you even ask Kurt?"
"Uh..." They looked at each other. "No."
"Kurt, do you want to be in the Warblers?" David called out to Kurt.
Kurt jerked and dropped his defensive stance and looked around the room. He knew he probably should say more than just one word to explain himself. He hated to be put into this position. So with the best of his ability, he tried to look a bit smaller and penitent. "No." He didn't want to offend but it was the truth. He didn't want to be part of the Warblers. The one word still seemed so final and curt and judgmental to him.
"See? It's fine, Wes." David said softly. "Blaine and Sebastian weren't using their heads."
"Again." Wes said sharply.
"Again." David agreed and leveled a look at the two of them. "Why'd you drag him over here when you could have just asked him?"
Blaine made a guilty face. "We thought he'd be happy about it. We didn't think his agreement was in question."
Sebastian had his head turned to look over at Kurt with his thoughts clearly running a mile a minute. "Yeah... we need to do a better job with that."
"Now that this waste of time is over, please take your seats." Wes dismissed them then turned his attention to Kurt. David very nearly stepped in to talk to Kurt himself but Wes was surprising in what he had to say. "If you would like to stay, please feel free to. You can have a seat in any unoccupied spot." He didn't send him out, he didn't make him sit in the corner or near a door. He let him stay and even take up a prime spot if there was one available.
Kurt tried to increase his volume for them to hear him over the expanse of the room. "Thank you. Dad." He gestured toward the doors behind him and everyone understood what he meant. Wes nodded his acceptance and Kurt left without any further preamble.
Wes did not turn to lay into the boys. Instead he went back to the meeting's agenda.
David hadn't thought Wes disliked Kurt, but was more just indifferent. They hadn't really discussed the semi-mute boy at all between the two of them. Maybe Wes was a lot more sympathetic than David had realized. That did bode well for future interactions between the group and Kurt.
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Getting any information from Kurt about his past was like pulling teeth and they couldn't even use the lack of speech as an excuse. He just refused, point blank, to share about his past. Sebastian and Blaine tried all their tricks on Kurt and the administration office. Nothing, zilch, nada was the reward they'd gotten for their efforts. David asked Kurt careful questions at times when he seemed in an especially good mood and sometimes David could get a bit more out of him.
It wasn't until Kurt came to school in a shiny Navigator that they even began to get answers. It wasn't the Navigator as much as it was the guy getting out of the passenger seat. "I could have driven." He said moodily, not noticing or understanding the welcome parade was there for Kurt and watching all of the interactions carefully.
"Too long drive." It wasn't so much that Kurt couldn't do full sentences by now but most of the smaller words' sounds ended up getting dropped or trapped in his throat. So even if he said them, they weren't heard. The ones with more pronunciation were a bit easier to hear and make out. He threw the tall guy his keys. "Drive safe my baby."
"Ha! You don't think you're going to get away that easily, do you?'" Finn wrapped his long arms around Kurt and picked him up so he didn't have to bend as much. He gave Kurt a very long, firm hug before putting him carefully back on his feet and ruffled his hair.
"Well, shit." Sebastian said with a pang of loss in his voice as he rocked back onto his heels. "He likes older guys." Blaine's face echoed how Sebastian sounded.
"Yeah, but look, a clue!" Jeff said excitedly. They all looked back over at the two and didn't see anything note worthy. The plate was common for the area, it wasn't at all a vanity plate, there were no stickers on the paint job anywhere. Then they saw it, the tall guy was wearing his high school's letter man's jacket.
"Doesn't mean that they went to the same school at any time." David was the voice of reason, yet again.
"Doesn't hurt to look and see if there's any mention of Kurt or Hummel in their archive. It could lead us to his school if nothing else."
They waited until Kurt joined them, but the tall guy still hadn't put it together that they were waiting for Kurt. Didn't really see them at all, just smiled at Kurt once more before taking off.
The majority of the Warblers gathered together after Glee practice, well after Kurt had taken off with his dad for the afternoon. It hadn't been too hard, they just moved from the choir room to the computer lab. Now they were surrounding the three computers they'd booted up for this particular project. They all clicked into different links and menus, trying to cover more ground as quickly as possible.
They really wished they hadn't looked. They wished they'd let Kurt come to them with his story. All sat numb as they stared at the news articles and messages on the school page. "Didn't you try googling him before?" Nick asked, voice rough with unshed emotion. "You had his full name and his dad's."
"Yeah, but the internet itself was scrubbed clean, no links, no references, nothing. Even these articles weren't pinged by the search." Blaine scrubbed at his face, his tears were falling easily and quickly. He wasn't trying to stop them, just dry off what had already fallen.
Sebastian gave a disgusted sound and closed the website on the computer closest to him. "We are not going to bring this up with him. We're not going to treat him any differently. He will tell us when he can if he wants to." His hands were shaking and he shoved them into his jacket pockets.
David reached out and laid a comforting hand on his arm and Sebastian nearly pulled away with a snarl but stopped himself. He accepted David's efforts, he just wished there hadn't been a need for them. His stomach was so queasy and he thought he would be sick after learning about what Kurt had been through.
Jeff nodded along with Sebastian's assessment and added his own piece. "He's here for a second chance, an escape from those memories. We can provide that for him."
David seemed largely unaffected and he reached out to shut down the browser on the computer in front of him but something caught his eye. "What's this?"
Then they were all sitting back for an entirely different reason as they heard Kurt sing. They were all utterly floored and Sebastian couldn't even hear the rest of the song. "Excuse me." He strode quickly to the nearest bathroom and emptied the contents of his stomach. Kurt's voice echoed through his head and he was sick all over again. He would never be able to get that out of his mind now. He sobbed and curled in on himself once he had nothing more to throw up. He stayed in that bathroom for a good long while.
No one sought him out. They were each dealing with the heavy weight of the knowledge they had uncovered in their own ways. They let him do what he needed to do. If he did not show himself before curfew, they'd check in on him.
Sebastian was one that they'd learned a while ago, when upset, needed his space to sort through it himself. He usually did and was back to his usual self, but sometimes the effects lingered. To crowd in on him, even to offer support, backfired hard most of the time. He was learning to control his emotions and his reactions, he'd done a fair job with it earlier. Hearing Kurt sing though had put him over the top and he just needed to be alone.
Sebastian cursed David and wished that he'd never found the link for the song nor that they'd clicked on it.
They should have respected Kurt's wishes. It wasn't like he had a lot that he requested and now it was apparent that nobody ever did listen. They should have never dug. Sebastian would be better from now on about listening and respecting Kurt's choices. He couldn't promise he'd be perfect, he might disagree, but he'd at least try.
He learned the consequences of not listening to him all too well now.
Sebastian didn't even feel up to going out. Often when he was this emotionally overwrought, he'd go to the bar, get drunk, numb the feelings and maybe add to his hook up count. It all depended on how much he drank or needed to drink.
He didn't think his legs would even carry him over to the closest bar tonight. They'd barely get him to his room, much less across campus and then off property. Even if he managed all of that, he'd likely collapse into another puddle somewhere along the way.
So somehow he got himself back to the dorm room and crawled into bed and tried to sleep. Sleep came, but his pillow was drenched with his less than silent tears well before morning.
