AN: This chapter was hell for me, and then these guys forced me to write something I've never attempted before. Enjoy, probably time jumping a few weeks next chapter. (Hard R, light NC-17 warning)
Kurt had gone utterly pale, and he wasn't alone. Rachel was shaking quite badly, and Will looked like he was going to be sick. Finn was watching his girlfriend with an odd but unmistakable look of discomfort before turning to level a knowing look at Will. Kurt watched that particular transaction with no small amount of confusion.
Rachel grabbed for Finn's hand and squeezed, and then also turned her attention to Schuester, then back to Finn, and finally to Kurt's father who, at the moment, just looked confused and semi-uncomfortable. Rachel was about to speak, when Burt excused himself to the bathroom. Kurt had a funny feeling that his father really just wanted to get out of the tense atmosphere, and he really couldn't blame him. Finally, Kurt broke the silence.
"What the hell is he doing in New York?" He murmured.
"He wasn't doing well in LA . . ." Rachel said quietly and Kurt turned his gaze to her in shocked surprise. "We, I mean, Finn and I ran into him at a coffee shop downtown." She began to explain. "We were pouring over old yearbooks and he came up to talk to us." She laughed a bit. "It was a bit of a shock, I mean, he was probably the last person on earth we expected to see again, let alone talk to."
"He made a really big deal about apologizing to Rachel." Finn said. "I kind of started to get worried about him starting to hit on her, but he didn't. He started talking about all the parts he'd been trying out for and just missing." Rachel laughed.
"He had no idea what he'd been doing wrong." She said. "I told him his emotionless attitude on stage was probably what was killing his chances." she chuckled again. "He actually looked surprised, and said that he'd try to do better with that when he went to New York." Kurt looked at her incredulously.
"You didn't think a warning might be nice?" He asked her, and she shrugged.
"He didn't say when he was going, and this conversation we had was months and months ago. Really though Kurt, is it really all that big a surprise that he'd try out for something on Broadway?" Kurt rolled his eyes in response. "Anyway," Rachel said. "The story's not done."
"I told Mr. Schue when we were talking on the phone earlier," Finn interrupted and looked to Kurt. "Jesse wanted me to hook him and you up." Kurt's eyes went as round as saucers.
"What?" he asked, and looked to Will who just engrossed himself in silently poking at his cake. Kurt's attention went back to Rachel having heard her slap Finn lightly on the arm.
"Finn!" she frowned. "Ugh. Well, he was looking through the senior yearbook while he was talking with us, and he stopped like, mid-sentence when he got to the New Directions photo. His eyes went totally wide and he said something under his breath. I only caught the 'he got handsome' part of it, and then of course I had to ask who he was talking about." Finn laughed.
"Yeah, after you stopped staring at him for almost a whole minute." he smirked.
"Well it is kind of shocking to realize your ex is checking out guys all of a sudden." She said huffily. "So anyway, yeah, he got all red faced and admitted he was talking about you, Kurt. That's all he really said about that right then, but after we had about a half hour or so of small talk he asked Finn to put in a good word with his brother." Kurt shook his head in disbelief.
"How did he even know about that? I mean, that Dad and your mom got married?" Finn shrugged.
"It came up after he said that thing about your looks. I said something about you spending too much time in the bathroom with all that junk you put on your face, and he asked me how I knew about it." Kurt rolled his eyes.
"It's not junk, they're moisturizers. This is just great, now I have to worry about the guy actually being attracted to me on top of having to pretend I'm in love with him onstage." Kurt spat out sarcastically. Remembering something abruptly, Kurt looked back to Will and frowned at his partner's distant attitude. Was he even paying attention? Kurt nudged him and the man looked up, a grim look lining his features. Then Kurt turned back to Finn.
"So, just how did this whole situation come up while you were talking to Will on the phone?" he asked Finn and the tall man grimaced.
"Promise you won't get pissed?" Finn asked and Kurt frowned.
"No. Can't say that I can." Kurt replied. Finn took deep breath and let it out slowly before speaking again.
"I was still kind of grossed out, and I told him I thought you should be with someone that was closer to your own age." He sighed and continued. "and, well, not your teacher. Then I told him that I could think of at least one person who liked you and was your age and um . . ." Finn squirmed a bit in his seat. "He asked me who, and that's when I realized I was being kind of dumb about the whole thing. . . then he asked me again, and I told him about what we just told you. . ." Kurt looked back to Will who was still silent – something that was slowly starting to get on Kurt's nerves. "Then he flipped out on me." Finn paused, thinking. "He said a lot of things that I promised him I wouldn't repeat to you." At this, the older man beside Kurt let out a breath that he must have been holding, and Kurt glared at him.
"Wonderful." Kurt said.
"It wasn't anything bad, Kurt." Finn said. "Sometimes a dude just has to talk to another dude. Like you do with Mercedes." Kurt growled.
"I'm actually a little more upset that you could even compare Will to Jesse. I mean, I really don't care about the age thing, Finn! I thought I made that perfectly clear. On top of that, Will's a really good man, and Jesse's a douchebag!" Finn rolled his eyes.
"I know that! Like I said, I thought I was making a good point, and it took me a while to figure out that it wasn't." The quarterback sighed. "Look, the whole phone talk thing ended with me feeling a lot better about your relationship with Mr. Schue. Not because I wasn't still kind of feeling weird about it, but because it made me figure that it could be a lot worse – you could be with some creep, you know? At least I know he's not going to hurt you."
Kurt's retort died on his lips, and he smiled.
"Finn . . . I think that's the most brotherly thing you've ever said to me." Finn shrugged.
"I love you," Finn said, then he quickly added, "Not in the um, you know, kind of way, I mean, Rachel . . . but, you know." Kurt shook his head, amused.
"I get it, Finn. Don't hurt yourself." he smiled. "Thanks."
"Ugh" Mercedes said. "Alright, so now that we all know that Jesse may or may not try to bust a move on Kurt's dance floor, can we please change the subject?"
"Mercedes!" Kurt exclaimed and she shot him a face full of attitude.
"You know, Kurt, I really think that those two," She pointed to Finn and Rachel. "Are making way too big a deal out of this. I mean, so what, the guy thinks your good looking. Anyone with eyes could see that. And asking someone to put in a good word with someone could have meant just about anything." She looked to Rachel. "You've always been a bit of a drama queen, girl. And you like your little plots and schemes just like Saint James did. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't just take the situation and make a left field romantic scenario in your head and then pass it on to your boyfriend." Rachel blinked, looked at Mercedes – looked like she was going to retort angrily – but then she paused.
"You know, you might be right. . ." Mercedes rolled her eyes.
"Of course I am. Now, what really bothers me is how Mr. Schuester's gone all silent movie during this whole thing." Will jumped as all eyes fell on him, obviously waiting for some sort of response. He put down his fork and sighed.
"I've been thinking," he said finally. "About how to address something Kurt said earlier in the best way I could." Kurt frowned, and Will sighed, then turned his gaze to look at him. "I know you know how the 'As Long as You're Mine' sequence is supposed to be performed." Kurt's eyes widened, and Will continued. "It's probably one of the most passionate parts of the show, and it's not something that can just be blown off or dulled down or changed."
Kurt stood abruptly, his chair tipping over as he did so.
"I'm not kissing Jesse Saint Fucking James!" he shouted, and Will looked at him straight-faced.
"You had a problem with the scene before you found out who was going to be Fiyero. You said something about the kiss specifically not being written in the script. You knew that Elphaba had that scene before you even tried out, and you knew how the scene went regardless of the lack of details that scripts lay out for the performance. I know this because I know that your knowledge of musicals is so extensive. What I can't understand is why you were trying to play dumb about the whole thing."
Kurt stared at the man, his mouth opening and closing, but no words spilling out. Finally, he spoke.
"I didn't think I was going to actually get the part when I tried out." Kurt said quietly. "I mean, who gets a shot at Broadway on their first try?" He paused. "I didn't think the whole thing through, and I just went for it. I mean, you were so encouraging and so excited about me trying out that I couldn't say no. Last night, when I wasn't busy wondering about why Mercedes and my Dad weren't answering their phones, I was worrying about how I was going to pull off this role without feeling like I was cheating on you." Will's eyes widened.
"It's not cheating, Kurt. It's not you kissing Jesse, It's Elphaba kissing Fiyero." Kurt laughed mirthlessly.
"That's a little easy for you to say. You don't have to actually do it." he said and Will sighed.
"You think this won't affect me? I mean, yes, you're the one who's going to be doing the action, but I'm the one who's going to have to tell you two to 'do it again' or to 'be more affectionate' or . . . or to put more emotion into the kissing. I'm not going to be enjoying that part very much either, you know."
"I'm worried that I might." Kurt said quickly, and Will gaped at him.
"What?" The young man sighed at his boyfriend's suddenly narrowed eyes.
"Well, you want me to be honest with you, right? I mean, how do you expect a sexually frustrated teenager to react to kissing someone who's arguably rather attractive?" He paused, and Will stared before turning to the other people in the room.
"Could you guys, um, take a walk or something?" Mercedes nodded; Finn and Rachel followed her lead, and Finn intercepted Burt in the hall, asking him if he wanted to head down to the hardware store. The older man frowned a bit, but then shrugged and nodded. When the door closed signaling their exit, Will turned back to Kurt.
He stood, and with one fluid motion put his hand at the center of Kurt's back and pulled him into his arms.
"So," he said, in a voice nearly a full octave lower than normal, "Do you find me 'arguably attractive'?" Kurt's eyes went wide and he stuttered.
"Y-you know I -" he began, but didn't get to finish as Will crushed his mouth onto his, twisting and taunting him with passionate kisses, pulling at Kurt's lips with his teeth then soothing them with his tongue.
Kurt found himself feeling lightheaded, intoxicated, and he would have fallen had it not been for the wall he suddenly found his back pressed against, and the man who had him pinned there. He tried to breathe, but his breath was cut short in a shuddering gasp. Will had latched his mouth onto his neck, sucking on a particularly sensitive spot – oh that would leave a mark – and working his way up to Kurt's earlobe which he licked, tugged, and muttered nonsensical things at, hot breath causing a shiver to run through Kurt's entire being, the hair on the back of his neck sticking up and heat pooling downward like warm syrup – cloyingly sweet and impossibly heady. He moaned.
"Is this payback from this morning?" Kurt asked curiously, and Will responded by grabbing Kurt's ass, pulling him closer, and stopping just a fraction from grinding against his partner. He licked his own lips and inched them closer to Kurt's.
"No." he whispered. "You said you were frustrated." he punctuated his statement by closing the distance between their hips, mewling with the glorious friction the action caused, nearly losing himself with Kurt's strangled gasps echoing through the apartment.
Kurt opened his mouth to speak and Will silenced him once more with his lips, backing off slightly from his grinding to slip a hand beneath the fabric of the younger man's jeans, teasing the smooth skin under his fingertips. He paused for only a moment before deftly unfastening the garment, bringing one hand under the fabric to squeeze his partner's ass and the other hand to pull the pants down and away from the area he was so eager to bring into focus. He glanced at Kurt when the man tensed briefly. Had he less control would have come on the spot from the positively wonton look in his partner's eyes. Will smiled softly before trailing his fingertips to center and wrapping his hand around the young man's throbbing member, pumping in maddeningly slow motions, watching his partner's eyes alternate between squinting and rolling in the back of his head. Will took his free hand and gently guided Kurt to face him.
"Look at me." Will whispered, and Kurt did, mindlessly pumping himself into Will's hand before locking eyes with his. Will smiled and brushed his thumb along the other man's cheek, fixing him with a watery eyed smile.
"I love you." Will whispered.
Kurt shuddered, pumped twice more, and came.