A/N: Thanks to everyone who left such lovely reviews. I hope you continue to enjoy this story. Blaine will finally be appearing in the next chapter (which should be posted sometime tomorrow).
I also added a content warning on the first chapter, which explains what this story is rated 'M' for. If you haven't seen it already, I recommend reading it.
Kurt stood in the middle of the choir room, attempting to look everywhere but where Rachel sat. They had mutually managed to avoid talking to each other ever since last year's outburst, which had in fact happened right where he was standing. He just hoped she wouldn't attempt to cause trouble for him in the club as a form of petty revenge, he had enough problems as it was.
"My name is Kurt Hummel and I will be singing Defying Gravity, obviously from Wicked."
"But-" Rachel began to say before she was shushed by a tall man in a Letterman jacket beside her, whom Kurt recognized as Finn.
Kurt had a crush on Finn in the previous school year. Out of all of the jock clones, Finn was the one who was, if not nice, at least not horrible towards him and that was refreshing.
Kurt sighed with resignation at the leering faces of the jocks above him; another day, another bondage game...
The small janitor's closet that he was currently cornered in was already becoming a familiar place to him. The dirty mop that had permanent residence there would be his best friend at this rate; at least you couldn't say it wouldn't be a good listener, albeit it smelled a bit funny.
One of the youths, who sported an impressive (though entirely unappealing in Kurt's opinion) black Mohawk, spoke up then. "Go on, Finn, its your turn this time."
'Finn' stepped forward, his mouth drawn into a thin line, neither a smile or a frown; the only emotional giveaway in his carefully blank expression was a very slight furrowing of his brow. He took the length of knotted rope from Mohawk's hands and looked down at Kurt.
Kurt frowned as he looked up at Finn, he couldn't tell that he was a Dominant right away, in fact he couldn't tell which one he was at all. Of course considering that he was a jock and that these were his friends, he had to be a Dominant. Kurt let himself feel the heat of envy for a moment, it must be nice to have the option not to let people know where you stand on the social ladder, Kurt thought to himself bitterly; damn some people's luck.
He screwed his blue eyes shut in uneasy anticipation of the inevitable command that was soon to follow. They usually took great pleasure in making him tie himself up (which was a command he had resisted at first, but he didn't try to anymore, it wasn't worth it), afterwords they would beat him up in many different ways, kicking, punching, while calling him a few predictable insults, since imagination was apparently not one of their gifts. Afterwords locking the closet door and leaving him there for some poor random teacher, janitor, or student to find.
Once he had been left there the whole night after the school closed and had been grounded for weeks by his Dad afterwords for not coming home; since Kurt refused to tell him about what had really happened. He would rather have his Dad think that he was going out drinking and partying than be even more worried about what was really happening. It's not like there was anything that his Father could do to help, anyway.
But, the eerily familiar mental pulling sensation that happened whenever he received a command from a Dominant never came; although he heard the words quite clearly spoken in Finn's baritone, "Tie yourself up."
Kurt stared up at Finn in sudden wonder, not quite believing it. He wasn't quite sure what was going on, he could only guess that Finn was granting him mercy by letting him keep his own mind. He felt the tight tension in his muscles uncoil very slightly, he knew he would still do what Finn told him, order to avoid trouble, but he didn't have to and that was a wonderful gift.
He shakily took the rope from Finn's (beautiful, merciful, wonderful) hands, tying a knot around his wrists as well as he could, casting a grateful look at Finn out of the corner of his eyes. Finn seemed to frown, an uneasy look clouding his eyes.
Mohawk guy seemed to catch the look that Kurt had sent Finn and laughed jeeringly in response. "Dude, it looks like the fairy's into you." He paused to lean in menacingly close to Kurt, addressing him now. "Bet you'd love to get down on your knees and suck his dick if he'd let you, wouldn't you?"
Kurt snorted loudly in response and said, "Good to know that, considering how much you love to talk about sucking dick, I must have company in the closet; the only difference being that I am literally in a closet and you're in a metaphorical one. But, close enough."
"What does metaphorical mean?" Questioned Finn in a puzzled tone of voice, from somewhere in the background; which everyone mutually decided to ignore.
"Fuck you, Hummel. You're just a weak pansy ass submissive, you should treat people like us with a little more respect." Mohawk snarled, his face contorting. "You just wish you had the Puckinator playing for your gay ass team."
"Dude, lets just go. He's not even worth it." Finn said, cutting in swiftly.
"Yeah, you're right." Puck then straightened up, but not before delivering a couple of bruising parting kicks to Kurt's stomach.
Kurt's eyes watered from the sharp, dagger-like pain suddenly blooming across his abdomen and he doubled over, a hacking cough shaking his most likely bruised ribs.
He faintly heard the group start to leave, and the ominous and finalclick of the lock on the door. He could tell that he was going to be here for a while...
Kurt opened his eyes as the of memory of when his crush had begun, ended. His near idolization of Finn had continued for quite a while after that. Then it had slowly started to fade as he became more jaded and realized that while Finn might be a tiny amount nicer than the other jocks, that didn't mean he wasn't still a major douche bag. His pride couldn't take him mooning over someone like that, it wasn't worth it; he had to be stronger than that.
Kurt abruptly realized that everyone was staring at him, waiting for him to sing. He flushed in embarrassment, feeling heat crawling up his neck and onto his cheeks.
He turned his head and gave a stiff nod to the quiet piano player, signaling him to begin.
The instrumental beginning to 'Defying Gravity' tinkled through the air and he opened his mouth to sing. This wasit, this was what he loved doing. He had practiced this song for months, he could do this, he had to do this.
Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game
Too late for second guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes and leap
It's time to try defying gravity
I think I'll try defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye I'm defying gravity
And you won't bring me down
I'm through accepting limits
Cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know
As he sang a dense fog seemed to hang over everything else in the room, everyone's faces were misty and far away, disconnected, as he concentrated on pouring his heart and soul into the song.
He hadn't only chosen this song because it was from his favorite musical, he had also chosen it because the lyrics spoke to him deeply. They embodied what he hoped to achieve someday, to just be able to leap; to just shrug off all the mental chains that had held him captive his entire life and defy gravity.
As he sang the final note, he thought for one terrible moment that his voice would crack, but it didn't and his voice sailed through the high 'F' perfectly, the note hanging in the air for a moment.
For an instant the whole room was quiet after he finished, then Mr. Schue spoke. "Welcome to Glee, Kurt." Mr. Schue smiled after saying so, his mouth crinkling at the corners and his eyes sparkling as he clapped Kurt on the shoulder.
Kurt smiled shyly, his cheeks flushed from exertion; allowing his heart to swell with pride as everyone clapped enthusiastically, even Rachel, which he wasn't expecting.
He walked over and took a seat among the members, as everyone murmured their welcomes at him.
He looked around at the group, taking the time to properly observe everyone there for the first time.
Towards the far left of the row of chairs were two girls in cheerleader outfits, sitting next to each other with their hands intertwined, and they seemed as different as night and day to Kurt's eyes. The Latino girl sitting to the left of her companion was a Dominant and she carried a certain aura around her that made Kurt surprised that she didn't have spikes growing out of her skin; which was a strong contrast to the other blonde (submissive) girl's sweet demeanor.
Near them was a quiet and submissive girl, dressed in extremely Gothic clothing.
Sitting next to her was an Asian dominant man, wearing a simple white T-shirt paired with faded blue jeans.
Kurt definitely did not pause to admire the slight hint of toned muscles that showed through the other man's T-shirt.
Kurt looked over to his right and saw Rachel, Finn, and oh god, Puck. Kurt sent a withering glare towards the back of Puck's head, wishing that he had the ability incinerate people with his eyes.
Sitting a seat away from Puck was a blonde dominant man, and that blonde hair definitely came from a bottle. No one could fool Kurt in regards to that.
Over on the side was a man sitting in a wheelchair, and although he was not a submissive, Kurt recognized him as a fellow dweller at the bottom of the pyramid. Merely being a dominant did not always protect you from getting shunned because of other things, such as being too smart for your own good, or loving Star Wars, and wearing glasses and being in a wheelchair.
Lastly, Kurt looked over and saw Mercedes, a fellow diva. He had made friends with her last year and for a time they had done almost everything together. Over the summer they had drifted apart, Mercedes choosing more and more often to spend time with her other friends instead. Kurt couldn't truly blame her, he usually felt too depressed to be good company most of the time, anyway.
His evaluations finished, Kurt tuned back into the steady chatter around him.
"...I just wish that we knew more about the 'Dalton Academy Warblers'. We need to know how much of a threat they are going to be at Sectionals, knowledge is power. Right now all we know is that they are an all boy show choir group that has operated at the private school of Dalton for years and years." Rachel was saying.
There were a few scattered nod's and 'mhmm's' around him.
"We need a spy to evaluate them, someone to go there posing as a student. I would go myself of course, but I'm a girl." Rachel said, with a flip of her hair and a bat of her eyelashes.
Kurt would never know what in that moment made him speak up, it was not normally something he would ever do, but he did it. "I'll go."
