"Hi, Mr. Shue."
Will Schuester looked up from the assortment of toys and gifts that he had been going through with a couple of volunteer workers and smiled, his eyes lighting up with surprise as he recognized, "Kurt! I didn't know you were back in Lima. It's so good to see you!"
The teacher laughed and gave his former student a hearty embrace, which Kurt returned one-armed, trying not to drop the two full boxes of cookies he held balanced in his other hand. "It's good to see you, too. I just got back on Saturday," he said, pulling back with a bright smile. "Finn and the others invited me to come along and help out today. I thought it sounded like fun, so here I am!"
"Terrific!" he said, beaming. "In fact, if you feel up to a little singing, we're down to nine people from our usual twelve today, so we could really use another voice. Here, let me help you with those."
Taking one of the boxes, he led the way over to a volunteer table, already brimming with an assortment of snacks. Happily, nobody else had brought frosted sugar cookies, so this new offering was sure to be a welcome addition.
"Who's not coming today?" Kurt asked, looking around to the other singers, who were also placing boxes along the table.
Artie answered the question as Finn wheeled him up to join the rest. "Didn't anyone tell you? Miss Sylvester drafted the Cheerios at the last minute into performing for some kind of adult care facility."
Finn shook his head. "I really can't imagine Sue Sylvester volunteering to do charity work."
He shrugged. "All I'm telling you is what Brittany told me."
"It's probably a Christmas gift for her sister," Kurt said without thinking. Most of his companions looked confused and Kurt said, "You've heard her talk about growing up with a handi-capable sister, haven't you? Mr. Shue, I know you have."
"I have," he agreed, looking a bit startled. "I guess I just never really thought about it."
Mercedes chimed in, "I was still with the Cheerios when she made us perform for them last April, for her sister's birthday. It was actually a lot of fun. The residents were really into it, especially the other Miss Sylvester. I guess she really loves cheerleading and that Sue will do pretty much anything for her. It's really sweet."
The all looked a looked a little mind-blown by the idea of Sue Sylvester even being in the same time zone with 'sweet', causing Kurt and Mercedes to exchange a grin.
Shue closed his eyes and shook his head, clearly struggling to get his mind around the notion. "Well, whatever the reason, we're expecting Puck, Mike, Sam and Lauren any time now, but we're still down to five guys and four girls for today's performance."
Kurt smiled. "So, in other words, you need an honorary girl to even things out."
The teacher chuckled. "I wouldn't say that, but if you wouldn't mind, we could really use your voice." Kurt nodded amiably and Shue clapped his hands together briskly. "Great! Let me run you through the numbers real quick, then."
Surprising him, Rachel grabbed Kurt's arm in a friendly hug. "I'll help you. You'll be singing a duet of 'O Holy Night' with me and I need to make sure you know all the cues."
As Rachel and Shue marched the bemused counter-tenor away, the remaining four New Directions looked at each other in shock. "Did she just say duet?" Tina asked incredulously. "As in, voluntarily giving up half a solo?"
Artie looked up at Mercedes. "Maybe it was all that sugar she had this morning."
"Or maybe we're all still sleeping," Mercedes theorized. She reached over and pinched Finn, who yelped and grabbed his offended posterior, making the girl grin wickedly. "Nope, guess we're awake."
He glared at her, the expression having no effect other than to make everyone laugh.
Tina smiled. "I guess Rachel is just really grateful for whatever advice Kurt gave her this morning," she said, looking pointedly at Finn. "Did he give you any?"
"Not really," Finn said, staring after his departed brother and ex-girlfriend, "but I think I got the point anyway. Kurt's really good at giving advice without quite making it sound like he's telling you what to do. I never noticed until I saw the way he handles his dad."
"So what are you going to do?" Artie asked curiously.
Finn decided, "Nothing. I want to see if he's right and we can learn to be just friends again for a while. I think I've had enough girlfriend drama for now."
He was surprised when Mercedes wrapped a friendly arm around his waist. "Welcome to the single life, white boy."
Finn smiled, realizing for perhaps the first time that Mercedes was the only member of New Directions who was not dating anyone. At least, now that Kurt was gone. She had gone out with one of the guys from the football team a few times, but they had never really hit it off and had parted amicably. He hugged her back. "Kurt and Rachel seem kind of cozy all of a sudden," he commented. "Maybe you and I should become best friends and freak 'em both out."
Her warm, infectious laughter rang through the frosty winter air. "I like the way you think!"
Seeing Rachel frantically gesturing to them, the four teens quickly set up the rest of the food they had brought and hurried over to start warming up. Puck, Sam, Mike and Lauren arrived in short order and arranged themselves according to Mr. Schuester's preference. After a few minutes running scales and warming exercises, the teacher smiled at them all and asked, "You guys ready?"
Heads nodded and smiles instantly appeared on every face. They lined up in two rows on a set of portable risers that had been set up next to a large, festively decorated Christmas tree, Finn taking a spot in the back row, center, between Kurt and Lauren Zizes. In spite of her strongly maintained belief that Show Choir was stupid, Lauren had not missed a single New Directions practice or performance. She had a very nice mid-range alto, not showy but very solid, and had picked up quickly on all of the group choreography. Finn smiled cheerfully at her and she actually deigned to smile back . . . or at least he was pretty sure that's what the sarcastic twist of her brightly glossed lips was supposed to mean.
He flashed another smile at Kurt, who grinned back with a happy light in his eyes that Finn had not seen in a long time. Kurt was a New Direction again, if only for today, and it was clear that he was ready to make the most of it for however long it lasted.
Mr. Schuester introduced them to the gathering crowd of spectators, the majority of whom where children, and received a polite round of applause as the group began singing, "Last Christmas". This was a song they had practiced last year so Kurt had no problem keeping up with his part, and thanks to his earlier actions, Finn did not mind holding hands and singing the lead vocals with Rachel. His former girlfriend looked so happy that he could not resist giving her a smile before the choreography parted them again.
The crowd applauded more enthusiastically this time and then Mercedes and Artie took center stage to sing lead for a mashup of, "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". Kurt had not been present for the staging of this number, which had been arranged in four-part harmony on the backing vocal. For a moment, Finn worried that Kurt would get lost but felt proud of his cool little step-bro when Kurt just followed the example of Mike Chang, who was directly in front of him, to figure out the dancing and faked his way through the background vocals with a little bit of slightly-too-loud help from Sam.
As Mercedes wailed spectacularly on the final note, the listeners burst into honest cheers and the singers grinned happily at one another. The girls did a lovely rendition of, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", with Mercedes filling in for the solo part usually sung by Santana, then the guys took over with a rocked-out version of, "Jingle Bells" that the crowd really seemed into. Mr. Schuester had run Kurt through the latter number a couple of times prior to the performance, so he was able to keep up without much difficulty, smiling brightly and clearly enjoying the number.
Shue then invited everyone in the audience to sing along with a medley of classic Christmas carols; sending most of his group down to join in and help people along while Tina and Sam led the carols from their place on the risers.
For a moment, Kurt hesitated as everyone dashed down to take their places, not sure where he was supposed to go. Then he shrugged and trotted over to join a group of 8-12 year old little girls who were enthusiastically gesturing for him to come over. The girls herded him into their midst as the caroling began, crowding against him a bit more tightly than necessary. More than one girl was looking up at Kurt with an amusingly adoring expression and Finn was having a hard time singing as he tried not to laugh at the uncertain smile on Kurt's face as he stood there being blatantly crushed on by a pack of pre-adolescent females.
When the medley ended and the crowd was applauding, New Directions retook their place on stage and Finn could not hold his laughter back any longer when he saw Kurt bolt toward the safety of the risers. "Way to go, Kurt," he whispered, giggling softly. "You're a rock star!"
"Oh, shut up," he whispered back, unable to keep from blushing as an embarrassed grin flickered over his face.
Mr. Shue and Mike Chang took over the spotlight for a few minutes, doing a comedic dance with much exaggerated skulking and showing off that had the audience in stitches while Tina and Puck handled the lyrics to, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."
A few more songs had the audience smiling and swaying, then Rachel stepped forward, holding her hand out and smiling as Kurt moved down to join her. The rest of the group provided a soft acapella background harmony as the two of them performed a heart-achingly beautiful duet of, "O Holy Night" that sounded so much better than the original solo version that Rachel had been practicing that Finn could not believe it. For a moment, he was a little weirded out by the irony of a Jewish girl and an Atheist boy singing such a blatantly Christian song, but as they sang he forgot all about it and just enjoyed the magic of their combined voices. He loved Rachel's sound but something about the addition of Kurt's gentle but powerful high notes – he was singing about a half-octave above the range Rachel had chosen – made her sound even better. Alone, each of them had a terrific voice. Together, they were simply amazing.
The crowd clearly thought so as well. There was almost total silence as the song was performed, broken only by the occasional sound of sniffling, and when they finished; the applause was so sudden and enthusiastic that the two lead singers actually jumped. Naturally, they recovered quickly, bowing and smiling proudly like the true divas that they both were until a laughing Will Schuester pulled them back onto the risers and wished the audience a very happy holiday on behalf of New Directions.
The group finished their concert with a rousing rendition of, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."
Compliments and enthusiastic holiday wishes were showered upon the ten teenagers and their advisor as they stepped down from the stage and took places along the food and gift tables, helping the other volunteers to hand out gifts and refreshments to one and all. They laughed and smiled and thanked everyone.
Finally, the line was gone and the volunteers themselves were able to fill up their plates and retreat to a set of picnic tables that had been reserved for them.
"That was so much fun," Kurt commented, taking a seat at the end of one row between Finn and Artie. He sighed. "It really reminded me of how much I miss you guys."
"That feeling is definitely mutual," Artie told him with a sad smile. Then it got warmer again as he said, "But having you up there with us today was great."
Across the table, munching enthusiastically on a handful of chips, Puck garbled, "Almost forgot what we sounded like with all dudes present and accounted for. We kicked old Santa's ass today."
Knowing that was as close to a sentimental moment as he would ever get with Puck, Kurt just laughed. "Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment."
On Finn's opposite side, Mercedes nudged him and winked. "Hey, Finn. We still on for shopping later this week?"
Catching on, he bumped her back. "Totally! And a trip to the ice cream shop afterward is on me. You know they just got in that pink peppermint kind you love so much."
"Oh, we are on tomorrow, boyfriend," she giggled.
Kurt was staring at them in open-mouthed shock. "You're going shopping?" he asked, his voice going high with disbelief on the final word. "And for pink peppermint ice cream? Together? Without me?"
Peppermint was his favorite out of the specialty flavors that their favorite shop brought in especially for the holidays.
They looked back at him, blinking innocently. Finn immediately felt bad, seeing the genuinely hurt expression in Kurt's blue eyes. He just couldn't go through with it. "I can't let you go shopping with us, because I need to buy your gift and Mercedes is going to give me advice. The ice cream is a thank you for helping me. I can bring you back some, though!"
Mercedes rolled her eyes. "So much for you wanting to mess with Kurt's mind."
Kurt looked at them both suspiciously. "What?"
"We were going to try and convince you that we'd become BFF since you left. It seemed only fair now that you and Rachel have become so chummy." There was a slightly hollow sound to her laughter and Finn could tell that he was not the only person who had noticed.
Kurt's belligerent expression faded into one of concern and he immediately swung his legs over the picnic bench and moved past Finn to give Mercedes a hug from behind. "You know you're still my girl," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her tightly and kissing her on the cheek. "A few miles, another school, and a few new friendships aren't going to change that. You're my best friend, Mercedes and nobody is ever going to take your place."
He spoke quietly enough that nobody could hear him except Mercedes and, due to his proximity and unusually excellent hearing, Finn. They got a few curious glances and tender smiles when Mercedes let go a teary laugh and turned around and gave Kurt a rib crushing hug, but no one asked. Finn smiled at them. Apparently he had not been the only person to notice how put out their friend had been over Kurt's new closeness with Rachel. Even Rachel was warmly beaming at the pair as they finally separated.
Feeling the need to break the moment, Finn loudly asked Mike, at the other end of the table, about his upcoming holiday plans and soon the entire table was alive with laughter and conversation again. Finn did not mind at all when Kurt asked him to scoot over and sat down between him and Mercedes, chatting with their friends and keeping one arm wrapped securely around his best friend's shoulders as she leaned against him and smiled happily.