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Jeff woke up just before 6.30 in the morning. He felt loads better just from actually having slept through the night. He tried to remember why, when he realised he was all warm and snuggly, being hugged from behind.

A protective arm was holding him about his waist and soft breathing was tickling the back of his neck. Nick. That's why I slept. He winced at a shot of pain through his jaw. I guess the painkillers have worn off then.

He didn't want to disturb Nick, but he needed the next dose of soluble pain relief, so he carefully extracted himself from Nick, going into the bathroom to use the toilet and then fill a glass with water. Just as he was shaking the powder into the water, Nick stirred.

The brunet felt around on the bed in front of him with his eyes still shut, before opening them, panicked. Jeff tried not to giggle as it would hurt. Nick saw him and let out a relieved sigh. "Jeff! I thought you'd done a runner!"

Jeff gingerly shook his head, silently, and then sipped from the glass until it was empty. He looked scared.

Nick climbed out of bed and hugged Jeff round his waist from behind, kissing his shoulder blade softly before saying, "It's okay to be scared, babe. I'll be there the whole time. Okay?" Jeff nodded reluctantly.

The boys took turns showering before Nick grabbed a quick coffee and bagel from the cafeteria for himself, going out to join Jeff in the parking lot by his car.

When he didn't need his hand for driving, Nick rested it on Jeff's thigh, trying to keep him as calm as possible. The journey was silent apart from the radio playing and Nick singing along softly, the sound of his voice soothing Jeff's rumpled mental state.

When they got to the dentist's surgery, Nick told Jeff to sit on one of the chairs to wait, as he went to speak to the receptionist. Fortunately she was a kind-looking motherly lady who nodded straight away when Nick whispered that Jeff was extremely nervous and politely asked if he could go in with him.

She leant forward to reply, "Of course you may, dear. We have many nervous patients and the dentist, Mrs McLeod, actively encourages any method that helps the patient. As you can see we have calming pictures on the walls and soothing music too. I will call you when she is ready for Mr Sterling, he is the next appointment."

Nick smiled warmly at her. "Thank you so much." He quickly sat himself next to Jeff, holding his hand and chatting away about song choices and dance moves for the next Warbler meeting, trying to distract his pale boyfriend.

Before long an attractive professional woman appeared at the door, calling, "Jeffery Stirling and friend? This way please." Jeff's eyes shot to Nick's in alarm, but Nick simply squeezed his hand and pulled him up, leading him into the surgery, hands still joined. I really hope she's not homophobic. Nick thought as he helped Jeff sit in the chair, relieved to find another one pulled up to the side of it so he didn't have to let go of Jeff's hand.

"Okay, can I call you Jeff?" Jeff nodded, wincing. "Can you tell me what the problem is, or maybe your boyfriend can?" She looked expectantly at a stunned Nick.

"Uh, yes, we went to the cinema on Saturday evening and had popcorn. I think Jeff cracked a tooth on a popcorn kernel then and has been in bad pain since then. He hasn't slept properly since, except last night when I got him painkillers from the nurse."

"I see. Yes, popcorn kernels can do that. My son..." she gestured to a framed picture on the side of two young men, close together in wedding-style suits, "...did exactly the same last year. Now, if you can open up I need to have a look to see what is going on in there, okay?"

Jeff opened up as Nick spoke to the dentist. "Your son looks very happy in that photo. Was that his wedding?"

Mrs McLeod smiled as she looked at the damage. "Yes, James, my son, and Matthew got married two years ago. They've just had a baby girl with a surrogate, so I'll have to make room for a lot more photos soon!"

Nick smiled, holding Jeff's hand tightly. "Congratulations! You must be very proud."

She nodded, before talking to Jeff. "Okay. Well, it looks like you've chipped a clean piece off of your molar. There are a couple of options here, one requiring more work than the other. I'm sensing you'd prefer the least amount of me messing around in there, correct?" Jeff nodded, hanging on to her every word.

"Okay, well since you've chipped it so cleanly away, I can simply scrape it clean and see if a filling holds without the need for drilling. If that doesn't hold though, we will have to discuss other options. Does that sound fair?"

Jeff even managed a small smile as he nodded gratefully at the dentist. Nick lifted his hand and kissed his knuckles, proud of his terrified boyfriend.

Forty minutes later and they were back in the waiting room, filling out the paperwork for that visit, as well as Nick taking all the details he would need to change his dentist to be the same one.

As they climbed back into Nick's car, he didn't turn the engine on straight away. "I'm so proud of you, Jeffy." He looked over to Jeff.

Jeff ducked his head. "Thanks for everything, Nicky. I'm so lucky to have you as a boyfriend. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my tooth, but... I was embarrassed."

"Why?" Nick asked.

"Because you're not afraid of anything!" Jeff exclaimed, glad his tooth was finally fixed and not shooting with pain at every movement any more.

Nick laughed. "Er, yes, I am!"

"Really?" Jeff asked, surprised.

"Yes. Since I know yours, I guess it's only fair you know mine... Spiders. Urgh!" He shivered. "When I was little, I was in the bath when the plug was pulled out to let out the water. A huge black spider came up through the plughole and started floating round me before it got sucked back down. Ever since then I prefer to shower, but if I have to have a bath I step out before taking out the plug."

He looked over to Jeff, embarrassed.

"Oh my god, that's horrible!" Jeff exclaimed. "Okay, that makes me feel better." His stomach rumbled loudly. "I've got another half an hour before I can eat, why don't we head straight back to Dalton? You can go straight to class so you don't miss anything else and I'll grab something from the cafeteria first."

"Sure thing, babe." Nick leant across to kiss Jeff before he started the engine.


It was Tuesday afternoon after school and The Lima Bean was bustling with customers. The delicious aroma of coffee and pastries filled the air. Kurt was sat at a small round table chatting to his friend.

"So, how was the first few days back at school?" He cocked his head to the side as he cradled his non-fat mocha.

David Karofsky smiled softly, sipping his latte before replying. "It was quite quiet actually. The bullies in the football team kept away from me because they have been warned by the Principal and the Coach that any more taunting or cyber-bullying will get them kicked off the team, and everyone else seems unsure how to approach me." He gave a short laugh.

He looked up at Kurt as he asked, "How did you cope with this, day after day?"

Kurt put his coffee down to answer, leaning forward. "Well, you just have to keep telling yourself that you have a right to be who you are. You go to school, get the work done and go to whatever clubs you want to. I used humour to deflect it, but everyone is different. If you can make it look like they haven't got to you then hopefully they'll get bored and stop."

David thought about this, nodding. "I'm so frickin' sorry for what I put you through." He looked at Kurt with welled-up eyes.

Kurt smiled softly back. "I've already forgiven you, David. Don't let that guilt eat you up, it's not good for you. You need to concentrate on getting through high school and away to college, which will hopefully be a much easier time for both of us." David nodded gratefully.

"Thank you, Kurt." David continued. "I asked you here to talk about one specific school issue, actually." Kurt nodded, waiting for him to explain. "The football team has a big game next Wednesday, it's an important one on the way to the Championship final. The Coach asked me if I would come back to the team because I am the strongest right guard. Practice is tomorrow afternoon."

Kurt nodded. "What did you say?" He asked.

"I told him I would. I guess I'm just nervous about being in that locker room again. It's where I found out everyone knew and then I went home and..." David stopped because he couldn't say any more. He wiped his eyes and breathed deeply for a few moments. "Coach said they've cleaned all the spray paint off of my locker."

"Well, you should do what you think you need to. I think you are strong David, and football has always been something you've been involved with at school. Why should you let the bullies take that away from you?

Maybe if the team does well and they see what part you played in it, they will learn to respect you for that? At least now there is no secret for them to discover. If you want to be at a school where you're not in the closet, it's worth giving it a shot."

David nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right. I just need to get through that first practice, I guess. I was going to ask Sebastian if he wanted to come to the game next week."

"How is it going with Sebastian?" Kurt asked, interested. The meerkat-like boy had gone up significantly in his estimation over his friendship with David.

David smiled, his eyes crinkling. "Really good. We get on surprisingly well, actually. He took me to Scandals last Friday and we had a good time. We seem to help each other... he got me to go out and socialise and I helped him get away from a nasty drunk at the club." Kurt smiled. "He is quite into football too, which is good."

"You know, I think if Sebastian was free he would probably go to watch your practice tomorrow. It might be worth asking him?" Kurt suggested.

"That's a great idea! Thanks, Kurt."


Sebastian was sat in the bleachers watching football practice at Karofsky's school. He had got there twenty five minutes after practice had started, so he wasn't sure which player was David at the moment. They looked so similar under all the protective gear.

The slim brunet sat bolt upright on the bench as he sipped his takeaway coffee, busy ogling the many rear views on display. Yep, football uniforms are a definite turn-on. All the manly shoving and grunting is pretty good too. He smirked to himself, enjoying the show.

One of the guards made a sudden run for it, clearing a path for his running back team-mate who gained a good amount of ground because of it. The guard got roughly tackled to the ground moments later, but he had done his job already.

A whistle sounded and the guard was helped up, team-mates slapping his back as the running back high-fived him. Hot. Make that super hot. Sebastian's eyes widened comically as the guard he was ogling turned and looked up into the bleachers, waving at the Dalton boy. Oh crap. I've been leering at David!

Sebastian waved back, giving him a thumbs up with his free hand. David nodded and turned back to the play as the practice continued. For the rest of the practice, David seemed on fire with his game. He protected the quarterback for a crucial catch and made numerous breaks in the opponent's line for the running back.

He also quickly collected any fumbled passes of the ball, stopping the other side from gaining possession. The Dalton boy was pleased to see an increasing amount of congratulatory slaps for his friend, silently hoping that this meant they would leave him alone in the locker room and school halls.

At the end, after the Coach had given his thoughts on the play, David quickly ran up the bleachers to speak to Sebastian before heading to change. He took off his helmet, his hair all mussed and the grease marks still painted over his face. He was panting and sweating heavily from the effort of practice, which Sebastian would have assumed would be gross. Except it wasn't.

"Hey, Sebastian! You made it! Thanks for coming, man!" He slapped the tall boy on the shoulder as he stood to greet him.

"Sure, it's no problem. I like watching football, any way." Why does he smell so good? Sebastian's eyes darkened as his senses were overwhelmed with David's scent.

"You must be my lucky charm, I played better with you watching me." Sebastian fought the uncharacteristic blush threatening to heat his cheeks. David continued, "I'm gonna go and shower..." Stop! I don't need that mental image right now! Sebastian was struggling to keep control of his body's reactions. "...but I thought we could grab a coffee after?" David continued, oblivious to Sebastian's predicament.

Seb cleared his throat. "Sure. I'll wait for you in the parking lot. If you're not out in fifteen I'll come looking for you. Call me if you need me, okay?" He touched David's padding-covered shoulder as he said that, concerned for his friend who was about to face his fear head-on.

David nodded gratefully and turned to run back down the bleachers, into the locker room. Sebastian did his best not to stare, but wasn't entirely successful.


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