Chapter 12 – Move in Day

Age 17 – Junior Year – November

Finn and Kurt enlisted the help of Puck, Dave, Mike, and Sam the new kid to help renovate Burt's place for the new occupants. They fixed up the basement to make it more livable, and helped Kurt move his furniture down there. It took them three times, but they finally got it arranged to Kurt's liking. Tina, Britt, Mercedes, and Santana all helped with painting and making things look good. But finally, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Finn and Burt took off from the garage and the final moving process took place. They loaded up Puck's truck and Dave's truck with the larger pieces of furniture and brought it all over. It took a few trips with a few car loads, but it was all moved over in one day.

FLASHBACK

Kurt stopped by after Finn got home. He was the Charlotte baby sitter while Finn showered away the grease from his day at the shop. Uncle Kurt was always singing and dancing around with his beautiful niece. Charlotte would giggle when he looked silly. But this little girl got even more excited on this particular day because there was a knock at the door. Kurt danced Charlotte over to the door to see who was visiting. He wasn't really surprised that Dave was at the door.

"Hey Dave, come on in," Kurt welcomed the larger guy inside. Dave gave him a small smile before shuffling into the house. "Finn's still in the shower."

"Actually, I came here to see you," Dave said. Kurt looked rather surprised. They hung out in the large group before but Dave never specifically asked to hang out with him.

"You've seen me already today," Kurt pointed out, rocking Charlotte on his hip.

"Well, I needed to talk to you about something away from other people," Dave said.

"So we meet at Finn's house?" Kurt asked, becoming more confused by the second.

"Well, I asked him if I could use his house or, well, he let me know that I could use his house if I wanted to," Dave tried to say.

"Okay…" Kurt said, trying to get Dave to spit it out what he wanted. "So what did you need to talk to me about?"

Dave took a deep breath and uttered the words he had been bottling up inside for so long. "I'm gay." Kurt's eyes widened and he promptly sat down with the baby because he was afraid he would drop her. Dave walked over to Kurt and held out his hands for Charlotte. Kurt transferred the baby easily.

"You're gay?" Kurt asked finally. Dave nodded, sitting with Charlotte on his lap in the large arm chair. "I'm glad you're not hiding, but I'm still kind of confused."

"I know, which is why I wanted to tell you in person rather than you hear it through the grapevine somehow at school," Dave explained. "I've made you freshman year hell. I know that and I'm truly sorry. I joined the football team and they always made fun of the gay kids. To stay in their good graces, I just went along with that. I know it was wrong, but I was terrified to go through that."

"Wow," Kurt breathed. "Thanks for the apology. It hasn't been necessary, especially after this year. You have been such a different person since you've started hanging out with Finn and even Puck. I am not sure that I can fully realize how you felt, being a closeted jock and all."

"I was scared for sure, but I would have been more scared in your position," Dave replied. "You're taking this far better than I'd hoped."

"Granted, it's not every day that one of the popular jocks is gay," Kurt agreed. "But you're quite brave for coming out."

"Not as brave as you," Dave pointed out.

"Look, you don't look like – and I quote – "the mayor of gaytown", I really stood no chance of hiding in the closet. You did a brave thing," Kurt reiterated, trying to drive his point home. "So who'd you tell?"

"So far, my parents, who are really trying to be supportive, Finn, Carol, and Charlotte here."

"I'm glad you've considered to tell me before you let the rest of our friends know."

"I know I've hurt you quite a bit," Dave said. "And I knew I need you in my corner."

"Of course I'll be in your corner," Kurt said reassuringly. "The friend you've been to Finn this past year has made me realize that you are a good person."

"You have no idea what this means to me," Dave said, his voice thick with emotion. Finn took this opportunity to come over to the living room. He grabbed his daughter from Dave and plopped on the couch next to Kurt.

"Dave, who's playing?" he asked.

"There's a D3 game on, nothing too exciting," he replied, roughly brushing his eyes with his sleeves.

"Better than nothing," Finn shrugged, sparing Dave from his potentially embarrassing situation.

END FLASHBACK

Everyone who had gathered from school to help them move now knew about Dave's little secret, and some of the girls had taken him under their wing to help him get Kurt to notice him more. Little did the girls know that Kurt already half had his eye on Dave as it was. He did have a thing for muscular men. But he wasn't going to say anything because he didn't think he was Dave's type.

Dave was finishing up moving Kurt's bed in the proper place when everyone went upstairs to start putting Charlotte's crib together in the former spare room. Kurt was looking over at Dave, seeing him grunt and push the heavy bed back. There was just something about how his muscles flexed under his McKinnley High Football t-shirt. There was a reason Kurt enjoyed going to the football games with some of his friends, to see the burly guys who played. No matter if they made his life a living hell. Dave was one of the ones who bullied him, but it was mostly verbal, he didn't hurt his physically, unlike some of the others on the team. Sure Puck threw him in the dumpster, but some of the others would body check him in the hallway and he would fall or hit the lockers. There were degrees of bullying, and, especially now that Dave came out to him, there were offenses that were certainly more forgivable than others. Kurt forgave Dave in his heart on the spot when he came out, but Dave still tended to worry about it.

"Hey Dave," Kurt said.

"Yeah?" Dave questioned, looking over at the thin young man.

"I know that you're still bothered by all the bullying you did," Kurt said.

"Were you eavesdropping?" Dave accused.

"I was, but to be fair, I was going to the other room and I heard you talking and my name came up," Kurt replied. "But I just want you to know, that I don't care that you did that stuff. I mean I do care, but I forgive you. You verbally bullied me for years, but now I realize that you were holding in this big secret, and the fact that I was out and proud was probably too much."

"Wow," Dave breathed, going to sit down on the small settee at the foot of the bed. "Um, I really do feel bad for all those things I said to you. I was definitely sure that you would hate me forever."

"I don't think I could ever hate you," Kurt replied softly.

"But I was awful to you," Dave insisted.

"Yes, verbally you were," Kurt agreed. "You called me all the nasty names in the book but you did not physically hurt me once, it was mostly Adams that did that."

"He is definitely someone I'm not looking forward to finding out I'm gay," Dave sighed.

"If he can't accept you, then there isn't much to that friendship," Kurt said dismissively.

"I can't believe you are for real right now," Dave said. "You really forgive me?"

"Yeah, I do," Kurt said, joining Dave on the settee. "You're not a bad guy once you get past the macho asshole persona that you have projected the past few years."

"Well, it got me by," Dave shrugged.

"I know, and if I could have hid myself, I probably would have done the same thing," Kurt admitted. "It takes a lot of courage to leave that behind."

"I'm really glad you're on my side."