I'm really sorry for the delay in updating this, you guys, but here we go.


It'd been almost two weeks since Kurt and Quinn started "dating", and Kurt had to admit that things had become a whole lot easier for him at school.

He hadn't been dumped in the trash once ever since, for starters. Well, Puck almost managed to one morning, but Quinn had come to his rescue just in time - all she had to do was drag him away from Puck by the hand, barely sparing the jocks a look.

Better than being spared the slushies and shoves against the locker was that he hadn't needed to kiss Quinn for any that to happen. Not even once. Not even a peck. Thank God all they needed to do was exactly was she'd told him - just act the part.

Plus, Quinn was actually a good company. In fact, she was incredibly pleasant when she wanted to be, with a good sense of humor and a whole lot of intelligence to back it up.

She wasn't too pleasant when they were in front of the whole school, though. Actually, Kurt realized Quinn had a knack for being the one in control - be it in control of the other Cheerios, be it in control of their "relationship".

The problem was that Kurt was not a puppy that accepted anything that was thrown his away, and he made sure Quinn became aware of that the first time they got into an argument in the middle of the hallway. He couldn't really remember what the argument was about, but he did remember getting quite angry at her.

"I don't care if I agreed to do this whole thing," he'd hissed at her loud enough for them to be the only ones to actually understand what was being said, "I did not agree to be treated like garbage!"

"What, you prefer to go back to being the jock's punching bag then?" she'd answered in the same tone.

It was weird how easily they had started attracting other people's attention after their arrangement (well, how he'd started being under their attention, since Quinn had always been under the spotlights); he could clearly recall people already starting to whisper to each other by then, probably wondering what they were fighting about. It actually wouldn't surprise him if they'd been placing bets over how long they'd last ever since the rumors about them had started spreading.

It came to his attention that Quinn apparently wasn't used to having her "boyfriends" actually standing up for themselves. Well, of course she wasn't used to it, he thought; all they wanted was to get into her pants, so they'd agree to pretty much anything. For him, though, getting in her pants was probably the last thing he wanted to do, so there wasn't any reason for him to take any bull from her.

Which was exactly what he'd told her, being careful to pick his words so as not to arise any suspicions from their peers.

Her reply to that was incredibly pleasant, considering he'd expected a slap on the face. All she did was throw him a "screw you" before storming out and leaving him to the gaze of everyone that was in the hallway.

Weirdly enough, all he'd managed to think then was how amazing it was that she could storm out on someone and do it so gracefully.

They spent that whole morning apart, and Kurt didn't expect to actually miss her company. Maybe it was the fact that she was the closest thing he'd found to a friend in that school, even if their relationship was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen. And maybe that was what had made him wait in the library until the Cheerios practice was over after school to talk to her.

He definitely hadn't been expecting to have two Cheerios flocking him when he was going towards their locker room to wait outside for Quinn. And he definitely didn't expect them to start flirting shamelessly with him, either. Screw them not even knowing him, just think about how until a week ago they couldn't way for a chance to throw insults at him!

The way he got flustered with their attention was embarrassing to him. Until then, he'd thought that if anything like that ever happened, he'd simply shrug the girls off and that would be it, but he hesitated. Not because he thought they were attractive - God, no -, but because he'd actually thought they were Quinn's friends.

It took him squeaking out Quinn's name when she finally got out of the locker room for them to quickly run off. He straightened his clothes out, thankful that his precious jacket was out of those girl's claws, and greeted her hesitantly with a simple "hey". He'd been thinking about what exactly he would say when he finally found her alone all day, but he couldn't come up with anything.

"Hey," she'd answered with a smile. A sad smile, he noticed.

She surprised him when she took his hand and intertwined their fingers together, that sad smile still on her face. She didn't say anything, she barely even looked at him as she led him towards her car in the school's parking lot. Any traces of the irritation he was expecting from her seemed to have disappeared, as if she'd forgotten all about their fight on the hallway. All she did as they finally reached her car was stand there looking at their hands.

They just stood there in silence for a few minutes and a few Cheerios passed by them on their way home, throwing curious looks at them.

"You saw that, didn't you?" Kurt finally said to break the silence. "Those girls... how they were..."

Quinn let out a humorless laugh. "Throwing themselves at my 'boyfriend'?" She finally looked back at him. "What, you actually thought I didn't know they'd do that as soon as they got the chance?"

"I..."

"They're not my friends, Kurt. None of them are."

That was the first time Kurt ever considered that maybe Quinn was as lonely as he was, that maybe she didn't have the comfort of all the friends he thought she had.

She seemed to notice his look of surprise, because she let out another one of those sad laughs. He found out that every time she let out one of those, he felt sadder himself. "I told you they're fond of back-stabbing."

"I don't get it, Quinn. Why do you put up with it? You don't have to."

"Don't I? You should know better, Kurt. You know what it's like, being their target. Why would I want to go through that?"

He started to get exasperated, letting go of her hand and gesticulating as he exclaimed his point of view. "I don't know! So that you don't have to put up this facade every single day? So that you can be yourself?"

"Now you're being a hypocrite," she said, starting to get annoyed. "You're telling me about being myself in front of them? Do you happen to remember what we're doing?"

That got him to shut his mouth tightly. She was right. He'd agreed to become her supposed boyfriend just so he could keep on hiding who he really was. "That's... different," he managed to get out after a few moments.

"Oh, really? Please, explain me, how exactly is it any different?"

"Because," he finally realized they had started to talk too loudly, so he took a deep breath as he looked around the school's parking lot and started again, more quietly this time. "Because I don't care what they think of me. All I care about is what my father would think if he found out that... if he found out about the truth."

He certainly didn't expect to ever have such a deep conversation with Quinn. Even though they'd been spending their time in school together every single day ever since they started their little facade, their conversations tended to be comfortably neutral, and it seemed like she liked to keep her personal matters as private as he did with his own.

"And you don't think I know what that's like?" she asked, reaching for the cross she always had around her neck. "Kurt, my parents are so conventional that I don't get to just wonder how they'd react - I know. Sure, they love me, but my father is the most closed minded man I've ever known, and my mom would never stand up to him. They're proud of me because I'm the head cheerleader, because I'm such a good Christian, because I'm the head of the celibacy club... because of everything but who I am."

Kurt watched as her eyes started watering, feeling something between sad and horrified.

"It's pathetic, but I'm willing to be everything I'm not if it means having my parents still loving me. I'm sorry if you don't agree with me when I say it's worth it, Kurt, but I'm not asking you to. I just need to know if you're willing to keep doing this... for yourself, if not for me. "

His throat felt dry as she looked away from him and wiped her eyes before the tears got the chance to run down her face. "Quinn," he said, "I told you before, and I'll tell you again. I'll do it. Look at me."

She did as he told her to, and he could see she was trying to keep herself together. He'd done the exact same time too many times to count. "I'll do it for both of us."

He didn't expect her to hug him, even if hesitantly, and if they hadn't just had that conversation, he probably wouldn't feel comfortable enough to hug her back.

Truth to be told, he'd seen so much of his own feelings in her eyes, that if he denied her the comfort she needed - the comfort he himself craved so many times before -, it would mean he'd lost his mind along with his heart.


I apologize for any mistakes in this one, as I didn't have as much time to revise it as I would have liked, but I really hope you enjoyed it. I was a bit uncertain on whether or not to skip ahead a little bit, but the people I showed it to gave me the go-ahead, so... there you have it.

Thank you all for reading.

I'd also like to wish happy holidays to everyone. :)