Between Us

"Um…Mr Hummel?" A sharp knock on the door interrupts Kurt from his position on the floor poring over sheet music from every genre he could think of.

He sees a breathless Mason McCarthy walk in and smiles. "Hi, Mason! And it's Kurt, we talked about this."

"Right," Mason chuckles awkwardly. "I'm used to my old school, very formal."

Kurt wipes down his pants as he stands up. "Well, I'm not even a teacher, really. Thank god, right, or else I'd have to dress like one."

Mason smiles but Kurt can tell his heart isn't in it.

"Is something wrong?"

Mason shrugs. "That's what I don't know. I just…didn't know who else to turn to."

Kurt pulls out a chair. "You know Rachel and I are always here for you guys. Whether it's about music or anything else."

Mason nods. "It's not about music. It's kinda…personal."

"Okay. I don't have anywhere to be so just take your time. Tell me as much or as little as you want." Kurt can't help but smile at Mason's earnestness, it's written so plainly on his face and Kurt can tell he's been tossing and turning over whatever is bothering him.

"So you know I was sort of…kinda seeing Jane? After we did the Carole King and Alanis duet?"

Kurt sighs. "Not to make this about me, but I hope you know that I'm really sorry about that week. I was going through a lot and I took it out on you. I wasn't fair to you or Jane."

"It's okay," Mason says sheepishly. "You may have been a little harsh but you weren't wrong. We practised it with choreography that evening and it went great."

Kurt grimaces. "That doesn't make me feel better. But I digress, you were talking about Jane."

"Yeah. She ended things with me today."

"Oh. Oh, that's awful. I'm sorry. You seemed to really like her."

Mason tilts his head. "You think?"

"From what I saw. Why did she end things?"

Mason's sigh rips from his throat and Kurt can tell he's growing frustrated, not with Kurt but just with whatever tearing up at him. "She said that she didn't want to waste her time on someone who clearly wasn't into her."

"What made her think…?"

"She saw me looking at…someone else."

Kurt crosses his legs and thinks for a second. "Okay. Well, it's not unnatural to look at other girls, as long as you don't act on it while you're with someone. Did you explain that you didn't mean anything by it?"

Mason shakes his head. "I…I didn't really have time. She sort of said what she needed to say and I wasn't really in a place to retort. She gave me a lot to think about and…I came straight here."

"I don't know how you operate in situations like this. Would you rather I support you or ask the hard questions?"

Mason laughs lightly. "If you could do both at once, that'd be great."

Kurt exhales deeply. "Okay. Here goes. Do you like Jane as much as you thought you did?"

"Yeah! I mean, she's awesome. And so pretty. We have great musical chemistry and we get along really well."

Kurt nods, suspecting as much. "I'm sensing some hesitation…"

Mason looks like he's about to cry. "I think I might be gay."

As soon as Kurt moves forward to embrace the crying boy, Mason shoots forward and pulls Kurt into a deep hug.

Kurt rubs his back gently. "It's okay. It's okay, Mason. I promise. And you came to the right person. A gay former cheerleader with great hair? I can relate."

Mason chuckles over his shoulder, sniffling. After a few seconds, he pulls back. "I don't wanna get your shirt wet."

"Don't worry about that. But uh…do you want to talk more about what you just said?"

Mason wrings his hands. "Yes, please. How do you know?"

Kurt hums in thought. "Well, it's different for everyone. I think I knew since before I knew what it meant. A few friends of mine only realised in junior year."

"But shouldn't I at least kiss a boy first?"

"You can if you think it'll help, but it's not always necessary. This might get a little personal, but what's making you think that you might be gay?"

Mason stares at Kurt like he might burst into flames. "I keep finding myself looking at guys the way I used to look at girls."

"Is this a new thing?"

Mason shakes his head reluctantly. "Whenever my sister would date someone, a little part of me would imagine what it would be like to date them instead. I'd never get past the thinking stage but it was easy to repress."

"I want you to know that you don't have to repress anything. I know these feelings are confusing and can be messy, but they're valid. Always."

"Thanks, Kurt. You're great."

Kurt grins a little, having spent nights worrying about his teaching skills. He knew that being co-instructors with Rachel would be tough, but he'd never even thought about his actual ability to connect with the students. "Well, thanks. Just fortunate I have some experience dealing with this."

Mason bites his lip, as though deliberating whether to speak. "I don't want to overstep or anything, but is there a way to…to stop reacting to guys?"

Kurt doesn't know how to have this conversation with a student and minor, so he tries to channel Mr Schue's calm, parental energy when he's dealing with Finn. He deferred to Holly Holliday in all things sexual luckily, but the woman was absolutely too forward in her explanations and that would definitely just scare Mason away. So he settled for a mixture.

"Look, how real do you want me to get here?"

Mason shrugs. "Hit me."

Kurt sighs. "Your body is at a stage in its life where things are very new. I don't want to give you the whole "your body is changing" speech because I'm not a health teacher. But I know what it's like to be reacting that way when you're also trying not to let on to anyone how you're feeling. Let me guess…locker room?"

Mason blushes and nods.

"It's normal, you know. I've seen the straightest guys in the world get turned on by the locker room. When you're a teenager, naked people are naked people. And if you're genuinely attracted to those people, it can be a nightmare."

The tips of Mason's lips start to quirk upwards, the beginnings of a smile taking form on his face. "Why isn't this awkward?"

Kurt tilts his head.

Mason sighs. "I'd be cringing and wanting to run away with any other adult, but this feels fine."

"I guess it helps that I'm not easily embarrassed by anything."

"Don't you worry about what people think?"

Kurt considers that question carefully. "I think anyone who tells you that they don't is lying, at least a little bit. Every single person on this Earth cares about what someone thinks. Even if I don't care what strangers think, I definitely care what my friends and my family think."

"I care too much," Mason grimaces. "About what everyone thinks. Even people who don't know me."

"Again, that's normal. Especially at your age, everything feels like the end of the world. People having opinions about you is scary, particularly when you're not really sure who you are which I don't think any teenager is. Hell, most people aren't."

"Spencer is," Mason almost spits and Kurt understands immediately, but he gives Mason room to elaborate. "He's so proud of who he is and he's so unabashedly out. Nobody gives him a hard time and he's popular and a jock and also in Glee Club and he fucking looks like that."

Kurt nods slowly. "That can be hard. I've had that, just in reverse. There was a jock who was so deep in the closet he was having tea with Mr Tumnus."

Mason takes a second to chuckle before returning his avid attention to the story.

"Anyway, he was resentful and jealous that I got to be out every day, even though I was bullied quite badly. Mostly by him, ironically. But he was so ashamed of who he was that he took it out on me. Which was bad, obviously, but it made sense at least."

"What happened?"

Kurt shakes himself out of the memory. "It got bad, but eventually he started to accept himself for who he was. He's now in a…very happy relationship and entirely out and proud."

Mason narrows his eyes. "Was that sarcasm?"

Kurt sighs, unable to stop himself. "He's kinda dating my ex-fiance."

"That's a lot."

"It is, but it's also irrelevant. My point with that story is that it takes time to figure yourself out. Spencer's fortunate that he knows who he is and that he's proud of it. It takes people different amounts of time. But I want you to know that I'm proud of you for being so mature about all of this."

"I'm kinda freaking out on the inside. With the way my family is, I've gotten really good at pretending."

Kurt leans forward a little. "Mason, is whatever you're dealing with going to be a problem at home?"

Mason shakes his head. "Oh, no not like that! They're fine with it. I'm a male cheerleader, you think it hasn't come up?" He laughs to himself, as though remembering an anecdote. "They just have very high expectations of us, so I've gotten good at pretending that I'm not struggling with anything."

"That must be difficult. But my door's always open if you want to get that stuff out before you go home."

Mason nods. "This has been really great, Mr…Kurt. Thank you. I have a lot of thinking to do."

Kurt smiles, a warm feeling filling him like he's genuinely helped someone. "You have my email, feel free to use it. Before you go, can I just confirm…are you into Spencer?"

Mason can't help the grin that takes over his face at just the mention of the boy's name. "Majorly. I know…the hot blond jock, bit of a stereotype, Mason."

Kurt snorts. "Been there, done that. Coach Evans wasn't always a brunette."

Mason whistles. "Right. Did you two…date?"

Kurt just smiles mysteriously. "See you tomorrow, Mason."

Mason waves before heading out the door.

Kurt takes a deep, cleansing breath and places the chair back where it came from. He stands, hands on his hips, staring at the mess of sheet music on the floor.

He feels a presence come up behind him and grins, recognising the careful footsteps that try not to make noise, but the squelching of shoes on the newly polished choir room floor tells him everything.

Arms wrap around his waist, lips attaching to his neck. Kurt leans back into the touch.

"You're here late."

Kurt lets his eyes flutter closed as hands roam about his body. "Just finishing organising. Rachel leaves things in such a state that it takes me twice as long to sort them again. If she'd just stick to the systems that I implemented…never mind. How was your day?"

"Better now for seeing you."

"You're so gay," Kurt chuckles and spins around in the hold. "Hi."

"Hi," Sam Evans whispers back. "I thought the coast was clear but I ran into that Mason kid."

Kurt nods. "He was having some problems and came to talk to me."

"Lucky him, you're such a good listener."

"You're just trying to get me into bed."

"Is it working?"

Kurt twitches as Sam's hand brushes against a sensitive spot on his hip. "Do you have all your things?"

"They're in your car."

Kurt smirks. "Then let's go."