Chapter 8- Support System
Kurt stood over the bruised jock as the latter groggily stirred below him. Kurt had found out that he was hurt by the jocks straight from the horse's mouth itself.
"Hey Hummel, how are you gonna kiss your fag boyfriend when his mouth is fucked up. Heard that Azimio deals a good punch!"
Puck had then walked away, bragging about how he had "fucked up the fag" and reassuring people that that was not a gay thing. Not that anybody was questioning the badassness of Noah Puckerman, of course. No that was definitely not an option.
Kurt listened to the slow, steady beeping of the various machines that charted Sam's statistics and somehow it calmed him. Whenever he was in distress of any kind, Kurt would put his index finger to the arch between the bottom of that and his thumb and concentrate on the even thrumming of the pulse that flowed through. It grounded him in ways that meditation and yoga could not. Although he did practise the more complicated floral yoga poses until he nailed them. And boy did he nail them. Brittany had spoken of her appreciation for Kurt's flexibility during yoga many times in an ameliorative manner. That was good enough for Kurt. Who needed a man when you could have a best friend that complimented your ass?
Kurt did, apparently, due to the fact that he was watching Sam's breathing attentively, noting the rise and fall of his chest.
"Kurt?"
Apparently, Kurt was concentrating too much on Sam's respiration that he forgot about the boy being awake and alert. Well, alert wasn't really the word to use here. Sam was unfocused, and adorably so, Kurt noticed with a small smile.
"You're awake!" Kurt enthused, glad to see no long lasting damage. If there was, Kurt would have never forgiven himself.
"Well observed, Spencer Reid," Sam quipped and Kurt smiled widely at his reference and his unusual pep in the face of danger. Even Simba had eventually cowered away when evil came to call.
"Sam, before we talk any more, I am so, so sorry for this. If I had any idea that those brutes would try anything like this, I would have stopped them. If I pretend to hit on them, they leave. Or maybe they hit me, I haven't performed additional but essential duplicates of my experiment yet. Anyway, I completely understand if you wish to cut ties with me to avoid any further retaliation from the rest of the jocks. It can't be easy for you to be on the football team and date me."
Sam frowned, even though it pained him to do so. "Kurt, shut the fuck up, please."
"Pardon?"
"You heard me perfectly. Apologies for the bluntness, but you really have no idea how I work, do you?"
"I have an idea. Given that you've risked a beating to protect me twice gives me some indication of your character, but I'm genuinely stumped right now. No amount of logical reasoning can help me figure out the blinding enigma that is the mind of Sam Evans."
"No, not about my hero complex, but about my moral code. There is no way that I would stop seeing you just to appease some ignorant boys. They don't like our relationship? Frankly, I don't give a shit. Nothing can stop me from dating you, Kurt. And I just realised that I never expressly stated our relationship status and I just assumed that you were my boyfriend and I hadn't asked you or gotten your father's permission or—."
"Sam, relax. We're boyfriends. It's clear that you still want to be after everything and that buys you a get out of obligation free card. You don't have to talk to my father. I would rather you didn't do that, actually. He has a shotgun. Mostly, he's all talk but he can be unpredictable. Especially when his only child's virtue is being compromised by an attractive boy."
Sam blushed and the red blended with his bruising slightly, making for an interesting combination of colours on Sam's face.
"Can we put a deal in now where we are extremely frank with each other? No secrets, no deceptions?"
Sam nodded acceptingly.
"Good. Well, my friends and I are planning a power play for the school."
Sam just stared. That was not expected. "Wow, okay. I take it the musical number this morning was just a taste of the new regime at McKinley?"
Kurt nodded. "You're quick to catch on. We're just tired of the way things are running and know we'll be better ruling it ourselves. Now I'm a Cheerio again, it's going to be easier. There's an unspoken code where the Cheerios are treated with an infallible amount of respect."
"You're a cheerleader? You…the uniform." Sam jumbled.
Kurt chuckled. "I am quite happy with the uniform. It fits me rather well. I'm sure you will be pleased with it, if you catch my drift."
"Your drift is being happily captured. I can't believe I'm dating a cheerleader."
"And I'm dating the hottest guy at school, surprises are just everywhere recently. Including my talent for rapping. That was literally the most risky and spontaneous musical move since Kanye and Taylor at the VMA's."
"Can we separate what you just said into two halves? First, I want to backtrack to your first sentence about me being…"
"The hottest guy in school? Do you not enjoy compliments? I can be mean, if you want."
Sam laughed musically. "No, it's not that. You think so highly of how I look and I feel like it's going to cause us problems down the road."
"How so?" Kurt was curious.
"Well, I envision you bestowing that compliment upon me another time and me denying it once again because, come on it's ridiculous, and then you get irritated because I refuse to take your compliment and then we argue about my insecurities and how you get annoyed that I don't accept your compliments. It escalates into a multi-topical lover's quarrel and then you break up with me."
"How long have you been thinking about this?"
Sam paused. "For about twenty seconds. Yes, I have an awful case of paranoia and insecurity issues, it's probably best to get that out in the open now."
Kurt tilted his head, empathetically. "Me too. I wish I could say that it won't cause problems along the way, but it probably will. But I also know that I like you. Here is where I would roll out a perpetual list of compliments, but I think I'll save those for somebody who will enjoy them. I think Santana will appreciate them very much."
Sam laughed, which caused a stinging sensation in his ribs. "I like you too, Kurt, very much actually. You make getting attacked in the locker room so worth it just so you're safe. As long as you're safe, then nothing else really matters."
Kurt stopped him before he could say anything else. "Okay, this is the kind of Edward Cullen self-destructive behaviour that I don't think will help. And this isn't a fault with you, it's with me. I can't be the only thing that you care about, Sam. I'm incredibly flattered that you even think twice about my safety, but you're worth so much more than taking hits for me. Plus, cuts and bruises are insanely hot for me, but I don't like the fact that they cause you pain. I swear, when we take over the school, the jocks will definitely know what hit them. Because it's going to be me. I'm going to announce myself as reigning King of McKinley and show them what happens what you mess with somebody I care for."
"I don't want to cause you any more grief, Kurt."
"And you're not. If I didn't want to get revenge for you, I wouldn't. Simple. But nobody hurts my boyfriend simply because he's my boyfriend and thinks that they can get away with it lightly. No, sir."
"Irayo," Sam muttered. Kurt frowned. He had quite a large vocabulary but even this escaped him. Was it another language?
"Sam, you're going to have to clarify what you just said."
"It means 'Thank you'. It's Na'vi, the—."
"Oh, the language from Avatar! I was unaware that I was dating a massive nerd, Sam Evans. I kinda like it. Do you have those nerd glasses? Because they're insanely attractive and—."
"Kurt, you're rambling. I have the glasses. I wore them as a part of my jock/nerd combination costume for Halloween last year."
"Just when I thought you could not get any hotter…"
"Hush yourself, Kurt Hummel. Because nobody gets more beautiful than you and that is a fact. I'm willing to bet my comic book collection that you're the most beautiful human being in the world."
"If you're weren't bruised as fuck, I would be kissing you right now. Just wait until you recover and your bruising heals," Kurt blushed slightly thinking about kissing Sam, but maintained his composure.
Before the situation could get any more heated, the Nurse walked in. He was young, probably a Nurse in training, Kurt thought and he didn't like the idea of an attractive trainee taking care of his boyfriend.
"Take care of him," Kurt warned, his eyes narrowing. Sam chuckled at the whole situation as the Nurse blanched.
"I'll come and see you tomorrow, Sammy."
Kurt fled the room and left Sam to defuse the slightly awkward situation. He smiled apologetically at the Nurse, but he couldn't deny that he was very amused by the entire situation.
"Is he your boyfriend?"
"Yeah," Sam smiled proudly.
"That's really cute," He replied, making Sam blush. Yeah, Kurt was really cute.
"Q, I really don't like what went down in that locker room yesterday," Santana murmured as she filed her nails. She knew that she had missed the bulk of what happened but only knew that Sam Evans protected Kurt from the worst of it. Still, she had faith in her boy to defend himself, but didn't think that he could take Puck.
Sure, he was feisty, but Puck had a fight club. Plus, he was bigger than him and was packing muscle that Kurt simply did not have.
But Kurt had tactics.
And strategy.
And the most important tool of all…
"You know what we need to do, don't you?" Quinn smirked as she soaked up the rare sun.
"The Cheerios phone directory," Santana smirked back. "I'll get them on it right now. What Level are we thinking for this particular endeavour?"
Quinn thought for a moment. After everything that Puck had done to all of them, they should be going for a Level 9 Extermination at the very least, but they needed to gradually make their threats more menacing before truly striking the final blow. They didn't want it to get all out of hand before they had even truly begun. It was the first day of term, after all. They needed to be sneaky and strategic. It was an undoubtable fact that Puck deserved everything that they dished out to him for being such a perverted asshole, but a plan like theirs required a small amount of discretion. At least for now.
"Level 5, for now. We'll escalate if Puck does. Get Heather to activate the directory and do as she sees fit. We cannot be directly involved in this, S. As much as I want to be, it's probably best if we stay away from the gossipmongers, at least for now. Our entrance yesterday put us on everyone's radars, or at least Kurt and Tina. I was thinking that we put them up front for a duet in the pep rally next week to show everyone that they're not to be messed with. Especially Puck."
Santana pulled out her phone, nodding. "Heather, it's Santana. Spread the word on a Level 5 for Noah Puckerman. Choose his punishment on our behalf. If it's not good enough, you'll find yourself personally demoted to the bottom of the pyramid for our next routine at competition. Make it stick, Diaz."
Heather Diaz nodded curtly. "Yes, Santana. It'll be done within the hour."
Santana smirked. Oh, how she loved having power. "Outstanding." Hanging up the phone, Santana turned to Quinn.
"Within the hour," Santana raised an eyebrow.
"Perfect," Quinn smiled angelically.
They were in business. There was no time to fill in the other three on their pre-emptive strike, so the two hoped that Kurt, Tina and Brittany would catch on. Their bond was certainly strong enough to predict each other's movement.
Later that day, Puck noticed something strange.
Nobody was scared of him. People were actually looking him in the eye and laughing. What was that about?
He finally decided that enough was enough and that Jacob Ben Israel needed to inform him as to what was going on ASAP before he completely blew his top.
Slamming the nerd against the lockers, he grunted in his face until the boy quivered in terror.
Now this was what he was used to.
"What's going on today, Israel?"
Jacob looked everywhere but directly in his eyes and he stammered out the truth. "Your r-recent exploits have gone viral around the school and now everybody knows. People are talking."
"What the fuck are you talking about? What 'exploits' are people talking about?"
"Your…condition." Jacob did not want to say it. The moment he did, he knew that his head was going to be meant by a giant fist. And he knew from past experience that Puck's punches hurt like hell.
"I have no fucking condition! You'd better not be spreading shit and just tell me the truth right now!"
"Everybody's saying you have gonorrhoea and none of the cheerleaders want to go near you!"
"Give me more!"
"Rumour has it that you contracted it from one of the moms you clean pools for. Santana Lopez has been rumoured to confirm it, speaking from the point of view of someone in the know. Please don't hit me!"
Puck slammed the locker next to his head and growled. "Shit!"
Suddenly, he knew just who to find to interrogate about the rumour.
"Hummel!" Puck roared across the hallway, catching up to the smaller boy and shoving him into the wall close by. A few passers-by sniggered at him, but most of them were scared of him and made no move to help Kurt from Puck's grasp. Puck pressed down on Kurt's shoulders, crushing them against the wall.
"Have you had enough of beating up my significant others and are instead settling for the real thing? How juvenile of you, Puckerman."
"Cut the shit, Hummel. I know you're behind all of this. Nobody hates me as much as you do. When will you realise that you have no influence at this school?"
Kurt scoffed, ignoring the screaming pain in his shoulder. "Oh, haven't you heard? I'm Sue Sylvester's newest Cheerio! I'm virtually untouchable unless you want her to push you down the stairs and then spit all over your supposed badass legacy. I suggest you leave me alone. I know nothing about what you are talking about, Puckerman. Now kindly remove yourself from my presence before the contamination becomes irreversible."
"Don't lie to me!"
"Lying means that you care. I have no concern for your wellbeing at all. I thought you might have had at least a shred of dignity but that was wiped out when you beat up my boyfriend for no reason."
"Evans deserved every punch thrown at him," Puck chuckled.
"Like shit he did. He defended me from you Neanderthals. He's the only decent guy at this school. You really learned nothing from Glee Club, did you? You may as well just quit."
"This isn't about fucking Glee Club. This is about you telling everyone that I have gonorrhoea!" Puck said the last part in a whisper. He didn't need anybody further hearing this stupid rumour.
Kurt laughed and not even sarcastically. It was a full blown laugh. In Puck's momentary lapse of power, Kurt shrugged him off and elbowed him in the back, sending him flying against the very same wall. "That is the best thing I've ever heard! Oh, I could sing! Finally, the female population gets the warning that they have deserved since you first got an erection! But no, I didn't know about this. You've got the wrong gossipmonger. Try again. Wow, big deal, girls don't want to climb on top of your sweaty body while you try to pretend that you're not the biggest Lima Loser of them all. Whoever did this has probably done you a favour. You can finally stop being a whore and start trying to be something more than a giant fuck up. Have a nice day, hope your disease doesn't cause you too many problems." As Kurt walked away confidently, he knew that Santana had cooked up this particular rumour. It was so her and he was proud. Or, maybe, she had left it to the Cheerio phone directory. Either was fine. The first strike had been struck and Puck's retaliation would be greatly anticipated.
The war of the KHHHB vs Noah Puckerman had officially begun.
There was no turning back.
"Tina, wait up!" Brittany called, jogging down the hallway and darting past several people to get to her friend. Tina had stopped and waited her the blonde to catch up to her before smiling brightly.
"Hey Britt! Do you have a free period now?"
"Yep! I just wanted to talk to about something that I don't really feel like I can talk about with the rest of the group. It's not that I don't trust them or anything, I just think that you'll understand more."
Tina was concerned for her friend. "Brittany, is everything okay?"
"Oh, I'm fine. I just…I wanted to know if you wouldn't mind tutoring me a little bit in some of my subjects. I don't know if I told you, but I want to apply to veterinary schools next year and my current grades aren't quite sufficient to make them take me seriously."
Tina blinked. "Of course. But Brittany, I know that you're smart enough to get in."
"Let's not do this. I know that I'm not as smart as the rest of you. Everybody thinks I'm completely stupid, but it is only because I want it that way. Most of the time, it works to my advantage. I can gain a lot from it sometimes. I know that I can do well, but I really want to be a vet. Helping animals will be such a good thing for me to do and I need to do it. I know that I can study hard, but I want to excel rather than just scrape by."
"I'm proud that you're looking to improve your grades, but why haven't you asked Kurt or Santana?"
"Kurt probably would tutor me well enough and he has done in the past, so that's really why I don't want to ask him again. He's my best friend, but I hate burdening him. And Santana…well she's part of the reason that I want to do this. I want to be smarter for her. So that she will be proud of me. And that if something ever happens between us, we can have intellectual discussions without me getting lost in the conversation."
Tina cooed. That was just the most adorable gesture ever. Brittana was so happening. "Britt, you know that Santana cares about you no matter what, right? So, what subjects do you need tutoring in?"
"English, Chem and History, mostly."
Tina nodded. "I can definitely do that. We can start now, if you want. Oh but, first, there's something I have to do. It'd be nice to have some backup. Let's find the others first, though."
The five met up shortly afterwards, filling each other in on the day's gossip. Kurt told them of his conversation with Sam at the hospital. Santana and Quinn told them the details of the rumour and Tina announced what she was about to do.
"It's time it happened, like you suggested, Santana. I can't deal with this treatment anymore."
Tina turned the corner and saw the boy that she was looking for. "Artie."
"Hey, T, sorry I didn't catch up with you during the break. I was busy."
"Let's not beat around the bush, shall we? Over this break, I've realised some things about myself, and about you. You're a completely terrible boyfriend. You haven't even noticed that I stopped painting ever since my competition entry was ruined. Yeah, what competition right? You're not interested in my life. You're only interested in Halo tournaments with Finn and the creature."
"Who, Puck? He's a cool guy."
Tina turned incredibly angry all of a sudden. "If you think that, you're a fool. He is a monster, Artie, and this just proves that we're not thinking on the same level. I'm breaking up with you. You don't care about like I thought you did and I'm better off without you."
"Tina, wait," Artie tried, but the Asian girl had enough.
"No, Artie! I'm done with you! Now you can play Halo all you want without obligation towards a girlfriend."
Tina walked off, waiting until she rounded the nearest corner before sinking into Kurt's arms.
"It's okay, baby, you did the best thing for you. Don't forget that."
Tina nodded glumly. "I know. I'm glad I have you guys here to—."
"Tina!" A shrill voice announced the arrival of Rachel Berry. "I just received word that you ended your relationship with Artie. Since this is your first Glee Club relationship conclusion, I want to you know how big of a rift you have caused for the Glee Club to deal with."
Santana scoffed. "Shut the fuck up, Berry, that was hard for her to do. She has self-respect until your sorry ass.
Tina quirked an eyebrow. "Besides, Rachel, if you want to blame someone for causing a rift within the New Directions, you should probably start by blaming the imbecile with the ugly ass Mohawk."
With that, she walked away, much like Santana, Quinn and Brittany used to do together. Watching from afar were two different people with different agendas, but each with the same objective endgame.
Bring down the KHHHB before any more trouble is caused.
Author's Note: Another update for you all! Hope you liked it! Review! xoxo
