AN: Holy shit is JSJ fun to write. Totally writing a St. Hummel after I'm done with this fic.
"Well, this is a surprise." Mercedes muttered, and Kurt frowned into his cell phone. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me. It's been a week!" Kurt sighed, closed a notebook he'd been jotting designs into, and rolled back in his desk chair.
"I'm sorry Mercedes; I've been busy." Kurt said and she humphed.
"Too busy to call your best friend? God Kurt, he's just a man." The young Hummel laughed.
"Not with Will, actually. I've had to rearrange my classes over at FIT and memorize the lines for Wicked." he shook his head. "I haven't even seen Will in person all week. He's got a lot to take care of down at the theater." he smiled. "You know you could have picked up the phone, too." She sighed.
"I'm just giving you a hard time, Kurt. Things have been kind of busy here, too. I'm a little disappointed you haven't seen your boyfriend, though; I was looking forward to some gossip."
"Just some chats over the phone. There hasn't really been anything new or exciting since my birthday. . ." Kurt said and Mercedes chuckled.
"You never did tell me what happened when we left that night. All I know is you guys seemed really awkward when we got back in." Kurt blushed at his best friend's leering tone. Oh, if she only knew.
"I'm not going to go into graphic detail, but things definitely got interesting." He said with a laugh. "Will ended up frustrated again."
"Kurt, you seriously have to stop doing that." Mercedes said jovially.
"Trust me, he did it to himself that time." he said, then smiled wide. "He told me he loved me." Mercedes squealed.
"Oh my God, really? That's awesome!" she exclaimed and then paused. "You told him you love him back, right?"
Kurt bit his lip and he frowned.
"No." he replied simply.
A rather long silence followed.
"Kurt." Mercedes began. "What are you doing to that man?" Kurt sighed.
"I don't like to just throw that word around. It's overused and cliché, you know? I just want to make sure this whole thing isn't a big crush or just based on lust. . ." Mercedes growled.
"That's bull, Kurt. You . . . I know you better than you know yourself sometimes, I think, and you are way out of crush and bang territory here. You don't look at anyone the way you look at him. Hell, I don't think we've had a conversation in years that he didn't pop into." Kurt groaned.
"I'll tell him when I'm ready."
"Tell him what?" She asked coyly, and Kurt blinked in surprise, his heart doing an awkward flip. Chalk one more up for his BFF.
"You're damn good, girlfriend." he said with a laugh, and she chuckled in response.
"Just tell him, Kurt. Love's cliché as hell anyway, and everyone sounds like an utter sap when they confess it. You're totally nuts about him, I mean, look at how stressed you are about this whole thing. If you didn't love him you wouldn't be so insanely concerned about telling him." Kurt let out a slightly dreamy sigh.
"I suppose you're right again, Mercedes." he laughed. "You should totally change your major to psychology."
"Hell no." She said. "I have enough psychos to deal with. I mean, look at my best friend!"
"Touché" Kurt replied with a smirk, then glanced at his clock. "I have to get going, Miss Thang; I have to see a man about a dress." Mercedes chuckled.
"For Wicked?" she asked, and he smiled, examining his nails.
"Well, obviously. They need to specially fit me and figure how much padding I'm going to need."
"I'm sure you'll look fabulous, honey . . . I'll let you get going. Call me! And before the week's over, alright?" Kurt smiled, and with a goodbye 'Ciao,' ended the call.
Will groaned. Today was turning out to be one of the worst of his week. Galinda's bubble was having safety inspection issues, the sets that were supposed to have been finished three days ago were now being estimated to be done two days later, and he had just had his second cast member come in because they were missing a page out of their script.
After sending 'Boq' home and trying to tune out the disgruntled man's ramblings, Will muttered some rather scathing words about the production staff under his breath. They, of course, were nowhere to be found, and Will's aggravation was escalating – this was supposed to be a team effort, and the team had been temporarily whittled down to him alone. Today really couldn't get much worse.
"William Schuester."
Apparently, it could.
It wasn't hard to recognize the voice addressing him, and Will had to take a deep breath to keep himself professional before turning around to greet the familiar, smug smirk that had been directed at him.
"Jesse." Will said flatly and crossed his arms over his chest. Jesse humphed lightly, and approached Will, handing him a stack of paper. Will took one look at what he recognized as a copy of the script, and his arms fell to his sides as he groaned.
"Not another one." Will said shaking his head, and Jesse cocked an eyebrow. "Missing pages?" Schuester asked, and the young man nodded. "This is the third one today . . ." Will muttered, flipping through the various documents littered on the folding table he called his desk. Finally, he found a copy and after confirming that it was complete, he handed it to Jesse. Jesse smirked.
"Moving up and still have to do paperwork, huh?" He said simply, and Will merely stared at him for a moment. He certainly didn't expect any small talk from the guy.
"I have a few lazy co-workers." He replied, and Jesse shrugged.
"It's definitely a few steps up from a minor league Glee club in Ohio." Will cringed and grit his teeth. Wonderful. Same asshole, bigger role.
"That 'minor league' Glee club took Nationals twice while I taught there." he growled. "And we stomped all over Vocal Adrenaline last year." Jesse smirked.
"Well, they never did recover after I graduated. I suppose it was lucky for New Directions that I refused to let Carmel fail me to keep me there." He shrugged, and then held out his hand. "Cast list?" Jesse didn't so much request as he demanded, and Will set his jaw grimly as he picked a sheet of paper off his desk and gave it to the man. Watching Jesse skim the sheet and seeing his eyes widen in sudden surprise, Will had to resist the urge to smack the look off of his face.
"Before you ask, I had nothing to do with casting." he said and Jesse smirked.
"I hardly assumed such a thing. I'm here, after all." he paused. "Kurt Hummel, huh? It seems I underestimated him." Jesse frowned, and Will's aggravation spiked. "Are you sure he's going to be able to pull this off?" Jesse's mildly curious expression met narrowed eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Will asked, and Jesse chuckled.
"I mean that he and I weren't exactly friends, and some of our scenes get a little. . ." he licked his lips and Will clenched his fists. "Affectionate." Jesse leered.
Will barely restrained himself from punching the man.
"Kurt is a very talented man." he replied, his voice low and spiked with venom. "He can handle himself just fine." The blue-eyed man shrugged.
"No need for theatrics, Schuester, it was just a question." He said. "Personally, I think this role's looking better and better by the minute." Jesse set the cast list back onto Will's desk and turned to walk out of the theater. He stopped at the door and smirked. "If you see Kurt, tell him I think he'll enjoy working with me." The young man's smirk faded into a rather predatory grin. "I'm good at everything I do."
He walked out, and Will grabbed a water bottle off the table and threw it at the door.
Kurt was pleasantly surprised when he looked in the mirror. The costume designers had done a fabulous job. Sure, he wasn't 'green' yet, but he could definitely picture pulling off the entire look. The wig – long, wavy, and pitch black – fit quite well, effectively covering his much lighter hair color. The long black velveteen dress had been padded a bit at the top to make it appear he had something there and the waist had been altered with wire to give him the appearance of a female's curves. Putting the pointed black witch's hat on his head, he had to repress a giggle. They'd really outdone themselves, and he was starting to get quite giddy about the whole thing.
He jumped a bit when the bell on the boutique door rang, and then frowned after listening to the receptionist announce that the '3 o'clock' had arrived. He'd been enjoying his little moment quite thoroughly and was a bit disappointed that it had to end soon – at least until rehearsals started. The designer, a lovely woman by the name of Kathleen, called him out to inspect her work.
The woman beamed when he exited, and she fussed over him a bit, taking a few measurements and then standing to rub her chin thoughtfully.
"I think I'm going to take it in about a half inch." She said to him and smiled. "It'll make you look like you have a little more waist and a bit more of a curve." She pinched a small section of the fabric and told him to take a deep breath and then relax. "Is that alright? You can breathe fine, can't you?" Kurt smiled.
"You could probably get away with a full inch, but I wouldn't recommend it." he laughed. "I'd like to be able to move." She nodded.
"Well, with my designs and your lovely fine features I'd say you're going to do a stellar job of passing yourself off to be a very pretty witch." Kurt laughed and thanked her, and she smiled.
"If you'll excuse me Miss Elphaba, I have to get to Mr. Fiyero . . . he get's impatient."
The smile wiped off Kurt's face in his surprise, and he slowly turned to see Jesse sitting barely fifteen feet away from him.
The guy was openly staring.
Turning away and silently hoping he wouldn't have to actually talk to the man, he frowned when he heard the sound of designer shoes coming from behind him.
"You look nice." Jesse said, and Kurt spun on his heel to shoot the man an annoyed but slightly confused look. Had Jesse just complimented him? Well, whatever.
"I know I do." Kurt replied, and Jesse smirked. "What do you want? I'm a busy man, and I really would rather not waste my time in your presence." Jesse's eyes widened in amusement.
"Ouch, harsh! Relax, Kurt. I'm just here for a fitting, not to start a cat fight." Kurt eyed the other man warily, and then sighed. The surprise of seeing him there had set his defenses up, perhaps a bit too high.
"You McKinley guys are hostile." Jesse continued. "I swear Schuester threw something at me on my way out, and you're biting my head off for appreciating your dress." Kurt might have chuckled at the absurdity of the statement, had it not been Jesse who spoke it or the mention of Will getting angry enough to start hurling things.
"And just what did you say to him to get him that mad?" Jesse smirked.
"Just the typical bad mouthing of New Directions." he began. "And for some reason he got really upset when I told him I was looking forward to working with you." Jesse shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he thought it was sarcasm. Though," he paused and smiled. "I assure you it was not."
Kurt frowned. Great. One, Jesse was definitely trying to flirt with him, and two, Will really needed to get those jealousy issues under control. Kurt sighed.
"Jesse, you can turn off the charm, because I'm so not interested." Jesse blinked in surprise, and Kurt continued. "I'm already involved with someone, and beyond the stage. . . not going to happen." Jesse shook his head and grinned.
"Glad you have some self-esteem Hummel, but you're slightly off base. I'm thinking trying to be friends would be a little more appropriate, seeing that we're going to have to work together so intimately." Kurt watched as Jesse lifted a hand, quite obviously trying to punctuate his statement by some sort of touch. Kurt slapped it away and glared.
"Friends keep their hands to themselves, Saint James." he frowned. "I don't trust you, and I probably never will – but you're right about one thing, and that's the fact that we're going to have to play nice for this production to work." Jesse rolled his eyes.
"Well, of course I'm right." Jesse paused. "So, I know this bar downtown that . . ."
"Jesse." Kurt growled. "I'm 19. On top of that, why would you think I would even consider . . ."
"They have karaoke on Fridays." He interrupted. "And I know the owner. I figure the best way we could get used to interacting with each other would be music." He shrugged. "A few drinks maybe, but you'd have to keep it on the down low so I don't get arrested for it." Kurt chuckled.
"Maybe I'd set you up." he said. "A little revenge for the shit you pulled with New Directions." Jesse laughed.
"You could, but it'd probably be a rather big pain to find another Fiyero anywhere near my talent level." Kurt leveled an incredulous look at the young man.
"Your ego just does not quit, does it?" he said and Jesse smiled.
"Nope. So, we have a deal?" Jesse stuck his hand out for a handshake and Kurt just stared at it.
"If you so much as make a lewd gesture, the whole thing will be off. I'm talking the acquaintance / friend borderline." Kurt glared. "Don't test me on this . . . I'm considering this a trust exercise, and if you fuck this up, I swear I'll find a replacement for your part myself." Kurt frowned when he realized Jesse was still smirking and still holding out his hand.
"So, deal then?"
Kurt rolled his eyes and shook the man's hand.