FIC: The More Things Change...
Title: The More Things Change...
Pair: Kinn
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~4880
Prompt: “Things Mr. Schue didn't expect to find at the 5th Annual William McKinley High School Reunion.”-- I’m taking this to mean of Glee Club. From finnkurt Summer Prompt Meme.
Summary: Five years after his original Gleeks graduated from high school, Will Schuester meets them at Breadsticks for their reunion, only to be confused and surprised by his kids. Unfortunately, some of the Gleeks likewise don’t get what they expected.
Notes: AU after S2 Duets. Kurt never went to Dalton, and most of S3 never happened. This isn’t so flattering to Mr. Schue. Jumps from Schue’s pov in the first part to Finn’s in the second.
When you’re a teacher, particularly of teens and under, your students are always your kids. They may think, later, that you don’t remember them, but that’s not quite true... It’s more that they stop aging for you when they leave your class. Forever frozen in your mind by their most noticeable traits. Sometimes you don’t recognize them because you are seeing someone else.
Will Schuester looked over the restaurant, observing his students as they entered, and each time, there was the jarring moment between Then and Now.
Quinn walked in first. Still prompt, intense, and with flaxen hair framing her face. At first he saw the slim wisp of a cheerleader, the mean girl, the one who twisted the boys around her until they were so tangled they could only do what she demanded, even as she was tearing them down. The one who had every girl following after her out of fear and admiration.
Her face was softened, now. Her body had matured with the rest of her, full of curves and strength. Her hair was cut with a razor’s edge around her face, and rectangular glasses perched on her nose. She wore an off the shoulder plum-colored blouse and flared jeans, still sporting a sense of style (though radically different than before), and at some point in the evening, he heard her talking to Mercedes about the new graduate program she’d started at OSU in Gender Studies.
Brittany seemed unchanged in temperament, but wore an asymmetrical cropped haircut, dangly mismatched earrings and bracelets, and a men’s suit vest and tie with her skirt and blouse. Odd, but Will hadn’t really seen her much out of the cheerleading uniform. She bounced in and hugged Santana’s girlfriend Elena as though they should be very best friends. Santana seemed softer as well. She didn’t seem as angry, anyway, even if she occasionally got that wily look in her eye.
The four girls sat together, talking about their careers. (Apparently Brittany’s eclectic outfit had something to do with her interning at a fashion magazine.) Funny, because Will had expected them to be gossiping about boys and their relationships, like always. Mercedes did, at one point in the evening, show them her engagement ring, however. When prompted, Quinn said that she’d ordered her boyfriend to stay at home and study for comps*.
When Rachel walked in, she was alone. That was a bit of a jolt, because Will had thought Finn would be on her arm. Maybe he was late? Hadn’t they gotten back together? The others didn’t turn to bask in her light at all, either, though Quinn did turn first when she noticed her and rose to give her a hug. Rachel seemed more demur, and put together. Something about her makeup made her look soft and sensual in a way that made Will a little uncomfortable. In high school, she’d always worn a lot of makeup, it seemed, making her big features kind of garish and striking. Not that she wasn’t pretty. She just looked quite noticably different.
And instead of babbling loudly about all of her accomplishments as a Broadway actress in New York, she listened to her friends with a sort of sad, nostalgic smile on her face. She even prompted questions, and clapped her hands when the girls shared good news. Eventually, Will himself asked what she was up to, and she replied that she was finishing up an acting program at NYU that she’d switched into after she decided musical theatre wasn’t really for her. It didn’t reach a big enough audience, and working on a set was very different from working on the stage, not that she didn’t want to do a little stage when she had the chance! Also, her teachers had really critiqued her emotional performances.
“Dr. Bellefleur told me I act like I’m orgasming when I hit my top notes,” she giggled. “God, that was embarrassing.”
“Didn’t Kurt tell you that once?” Santana asked. “Didn’t I tell you that once?”
“He did, and you did, and so I wasn’t that shocked, honestly. Thanks for bracing me! He also said I’m always pulling faces like I just had a botox injection and don’t trust my muscles to move the right way.”
The others laughed again.
“My teachers are really helping, though. I don’t know how they know how to tell me what to do, but they do. And it always works. I’ve started recording everything so I can see what I’m doing and work on it. I’ve sung in the mirror before, but it’s not exactly the same.”
The boys piled in, all looking as coiffed and spirited as he’d ever seen them during performances, with the exception of Puck who was in a bit of a disarray, because apparently his little boy had thrown a fit before he’d left the house and his wife couldn’t get the baby to calm without Puck singing to him.
“That’s the most adorable thing ever. You’d better have pictures,” Mercedes warned. “I can’t believe you didn’t bring him.”
“All he does in restaurants is scream,” Puck argued. “No one wants that! It’s too late for him to be up, anyway.”
“You’re still local, right?” Rachel said.
“I’m co-managing Burt’s tire shop now,” Puck said with a shrug. “I’m actually not bad at it. The guys are really cool, and we grab some kids here and there, give ‘em something to do besides knock over convenience stores.”
“It’s about time someone did,” Quinn said with an approving nod.
“We opened a second location in Westerville, so I bounce between the two. It’s way better than pools, though.” Puck rolled his eyes. “For starters, everyone here has a car.”
Mike and Tina danced around one another a bit awkwardly, introducing their... girlfriends to each other. Will was a little confused about that, though no one else seemed to be. Mihn and Veronica seemed a little jealous, but they all seemed to work it out well enough by sitting on different sides of the table.
Oddly, Finn still hadn’t appeared. That had been sort of a disappointment. Will had been looking forward to seeing him most of all, and he hadn’t heard from Finn in a while. He’d even missed last year’s reunion. Not that all of the kids came every year; they came when they could and did their best to stay in touch. Will tended to lose touch with them much faster than they did each other.
Now that all of his students had their Facebooks, sometimes students would “friend” him, so he could keep up with them. Not as many of them had as he’d expected, since that was supposedly their “space” these days. Puck mostly posted pictures of his kid and ‘liked’ things his friends were saying (busy working man). Quinn posted a nonstop stream of “I signed this petition” and “I’m going to be at this protest” and “The Republicans are being outrageous!” links. Santana posted a lot of pictures and memes that made Will laugh or gasp (and he couldn’t open at work), in addition to pictures and videos from her performances. As did Mercedes and Mike, sometimes, but they forgot to update, otherwise. Rachel seemed to update every five minutes with posts that didn’t actually make Schue understand anything that she was doing with her life. Occasionally, he’d read a comment from one of the girls on her posts that gave him a clue.
Finn hadn’t friended Will. He’d actually talked about doing it during their first year in Glee, but not been able to figure out Facebook, even with some rather pointed help from Kurt. So Will was really at the mercy of the group, or asking direct questions of Burt if he ever ran into him, to get that kind of information.
The group settled into their salads and started sipping wine. Will felt vaguely like he should tell them that drinking was bad, but now they were all old enough to do it, even the younger ones, and they all did, with the exception of Puck. Will wondered if it was a religious thing when he turned to Artie and, for some reason, pumped a fist with a “Shalom!”
They were all chattering away in the section that Breadsticks had set aside for them when Finn finally walked in, with Kurt by his side. Will wondered momentarily why they’d arrived together, but then told himself that, of course, they’d probably gone to visit their family first, and he rose to greet Finn with a big hug.
The girls attacked Kurt and started talking with him excitedly, as though they hadn’t seen him in years. Will missed most of it as he brought Finn over to the guys’ side of the table.
“Sorry we’re so late,” Finn said. “Our flight was delayed. It was ridiculous. But Kurt flipped out his phone and got us rebooked on the next flight before the poor folks behind the desk even realized the original would be cancelled for mechanical difficulties.”
He looked behind him, then motioned to Puck, who fetched another chair. Will frowned a little as Finn touched Kurt’s shoulder. Kurt looked up at him with a light smile as Finn pulled the chair back a little.
Huh. Well. Maybe they’d had a rough flight.
Veronica passed them down a menu, and the two of them leaned over it.
“I’ll just have a salad...”
“The capellini pomodoro is pretty light.” “Hm. What are you having?”
“The bacon-encrusted fried porkbutt.”
Kurt gaped up at Finn with a sense of scandal in his eyes, and the others laughed.
“What?” Finn said with mock-innocence and a big, lopsided grin. “Hey, if we’re gonna go out, I wanna get something Kurt won’t let me have at home!”
“That’s what I do when I go out without Katie!” Puck agreed.
“I though you ordered fish,” Artie said. “Not porkbutt.”
Mercedes reached over and patted Finn’s hand. “You have my sympathy. But I ordered already, so Kurt can’t guilt me into eating light lettuce.”
“Hey!” Kurt complained. “I am not that bad. I’m on a Food Judging 12-steps program.”
“I’ll never be free,” Finn sighed, mournfully.
“Oh, quit complaining. You love my cooking.”
“I just wanna feel like I’m being bad,” Finn laughed. “Let’s just share. You get ah... ah, zesty calamari salad, and I’ll get the portobello ravioli... I bet the sun-dried tomato sauce isn’t as good as yours, though.”
“Well, mine includes chardonnay, chervil, and glitter,” Kurt told him with a big smile.
When the waitress came by, Santana snapped her fingers at the woman, who raised a brow, but smiled like she remembered this group of noisy kids that met every year. Kurt leaned over to scope out Mercedes’ ring, while Finn ordered for them.
Finn reached over to the appetizers sitting in the middle of the table and ladled some mussels and liquor into a bowl, which he pulled closer for himself and Kurt to share. He dug into the mussels, listening as everyone talked. After trying a mussel for himself, he offered one to Kurt, who ate it out of his hand, sipping the juice gracefully, and nodded, scrunching up his nose, with approval.
It was nice how... close they were. Will hadn’t realized they lived together now. But that was fine. They were brothers, after all. Kurt sure seemed to have helped Finn broaden his palate from burgers and pizza.
“It’s about damn time,” Kurt said, looking at Mercedes’ ring again. “I was about to come out to L.A. and do my old football routine for Dwayne.”
“Oh, go easy on the boy. He just gets intimidated by all o’this.” Mercedes did a shimmy. Kurt laughed and hugged her with one arm.
“When are you tying the knot?” Santana accused, pointing at him.
Kurt waved his left hand around in the air. “Oh, we’re waiting until after the show. I’m just so exhausted all the time; it’s hard for me to plan.”
“And I honestly couldn’t care less if we have carnations or gladiolas at the tables,” Finn said.
“Those are some really terrible flowers for a wedding,” Kurt objected, sounding almost put-out that Finn would want that.
Finn pushed his lower lip up, looking confused. “What is a non-terrible flower for a wedding?”
“Um... for example, stephanotis?”
“The-whaaa?”
Now Kurt was smiling again. “The little white trumpet flowers.”
“Ohhh.. Well, those are cute. I don’t even know the names of weddingy flowers. All the more reason I’m not in charge of the planning, though,” Finn quipped, with a shrug of his shoulders.
Rachel clasped her hands together and rested her chin on them. “Ohhh, I’m so excited! Pleaaaase let me sing something at your wedding. One thing. I’ll even duet, if I get to sing. Oh! Me and Mercedes! Right?”
Will tilted his head to the side. “I didn’t know you were seeing anyone, Kurt.”
Every eye turned to him, some with looks of shock, some (like Santana) with deep amusement. Even the new girlfriends looked at him funny.
“Um.” Finn scratched the back of his head.
That was when Will caught the little silver glint on Finn’s left hand. Will blinked and frowned, trying to figure out what his kids (22-23 year old kids) were staring at him about.
“You could say I’m ‘seeing’ someone,” Kurt breezed.
Apparently the rest of them knew this already. Maybe Kurt had them all on his Facebook and they’d seen his updated relationship status?
Just then, the waitress returned with Kurt’s salad and a couple of wine glasses for them. “We’ll get your entrees right out, guys,” she promised.
“Oh, this is already delicious,” Santana hissed at Elena, and she balled her fists in enjoyment. Elena laughed and draped herself over Santana’s shoulders.
“This is already insane,” Quinn drawled. “But not surprising, strangely.”
Will looked at Kurt again. “I’m not sure I understand...”
The young man’s lips were curving, almost smirking. He seemed taller. Like he was at ease in his skin and could command the world (and apparently airline workers). Will remembered Kurt as a small, soft-spoken boy. Toothpick arms, girlish outfits, his peeping (sometimes strident) voice. He made the club’s costumes with Tina and Mercedes, who kept him from going overboard with the feathers. Sometimes he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, certainly. Kurt had gotten picked on a lot, but Finn had always stood up for him. He could see why Kurt would be so attached to Finn because of that, but the way they were together was a little... much. Especially if Kurt had a boyfriend now.
Finn was now frowning deeply and eyeing Will almost like he was angry. His hand touched Kurt’s knee.
“Dude,” Puck said suddenly, breaking the silence. “They’re gay.”
A wave of laughter came from the group.
“What?” He looked around at all of them. They had to be joking.
“Mr. Schue, Kurt’s my fiancé,” Finn said seriously.
“We can’t blame him for missing the whole ‘we’re dating’ thing,” Kurt said, reaching over to thread his fingers through Finn’s. He rubbed his thumb over Finn’s, causing Finn’s irritation to fade. “I haven’t been to the last three reunions.”
Kurt quirked his mouth to the side and sang to the others, “Sorry!”
“You should be,” Mercedes teased. “We’ve missed you!”
Rachel pulled a frownie face with her lips and drew one with her fingers.
“I’ve been busy,” Kurt protested. He pointed at Rachel. “You have no excuse not to see me.”
“Yeah, but some of us manage to keep up with the obvious anyway,” Tina said. She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes into slits. “You knew I was bi, right? I mean, you were just looking at Veronica because... Weren’t you?”
Will raised his brows and tried to think of what to say. His reaction elicited more laughter.
“But Tina was always bi,” Mike said. He shook his head. “I mean... We’ll obviously, she was always bi, but we always knew that.”
“I’d say our engagement has been a more recent revelation.” Kurt chuckled as he cut up their salad. “Oh. Mr. Schue.”
Like he was sighing over something their particularly dumb dog had done.
“I don’t know how I missed that,” Will muttered.
“Yeah, ‘cause I was talking about the trip Kurt and I took together at the last reunion I went to,” Finn said, giving him another perturbed look.
“I must have misunderstood.” Will shook his head and laughed at himself. “Well. Um... congratulations on the wedding!”
“You’re all invited,” Finn said. “Y’know, when we actually start sending out invites. Until then we’ll just kinda be one of those cool couples that coasts along being engaged forever.”
Kurt lifted his left hand and wiggled his fingers to show off the ring, with a big grin.
“That’s not a very big diamond,” Santana said. “It looks like a silver band from here.”
“It is a band, you gold digger. I’m not Beyoncé.”
Rachel laughed as she grabbed Kurt’s arm.
“Well, not on the weekdays, anyway,” he joked. “There are some stones, but they’re not diamonds. It’s three cubic zirconias set diagonally in polished tungsten carbide.” He leaned forward so Santana could get a better look.
Finn held up his hand. “Mine’s tungsten carbide with a brushed center and polished rim.”
“I’m so proud of you for memorizing that,” Kurt said.
“Hey! It’s awesome. And it looks cool and the shiny part matches yours, and won’t scratch when I’m at gigs and stuff,” Finn said proudly. “And it was like $150 bucks!”
“I’m not cheap,” Kurt said, as though he’d argued this before. “I just didn’t want us to be wearing the cost of buying a really nice apartment on our hands.” He shrugged and smiled. “But mine has jewels, because I like bling!”
Finn laughed and grabbed him around the shoulders before pressing a kiss to his head.
“You should’ve seen the Alexander McQueen rings we were looking at,” Kurt said.
“Dude, those were ugly and expensive!” Finn complained.
“I thought you’d find skulls cool!”
“They are,” Puck agreed.
“No, dude. They were ugly.” Finn shook his head and sipped his wine. “And they cost like three times as much as Kurt’s ring. What the hell?”
“You just don’t get fashion,” Kurt teased.
“Whatever, you wanted a pretty ring, too.” Finn forked the untouched salad.
“Well, I am Beyoncé,” Mercedes said dramatically, flashing her ring again.
“Work!” Kurt snapped his fingers in the air to punctuate.
Their entrees arrived, and the table’s conversation splintered into numerous little discussions about different things going on in their lives. Will figured he’d try to talk to Finn later and find out more details about this, really very huge, development in his life. Finn didn’t seem that different from high school, or even from the last time he’d seen him. Though in high school he’d been less decisive and sometimes a little overwhelmed and spacey. He was more focused now, definitely, but there were other things that had changed, even if Will couldn’t put his finger on them. Nor could he chalk them up to Finn’s band apparently getting gigs now.
The whole thing unsettled Will in a way he couldn’t put his finger on, either. Though Finn certainly looked comfortable there, with one hand always on Kurt as they ate their dinner, drank their wine, and talked to their friends.
***
Finn punched a pillow on the hotel bed. He sat down and huffed. A moment later, Kurt opened the door, but didn’t enter. He was still talking to Mercedes about the four of them going out for dinner together before heading back to their respective coasts.
“Dwayne’s in town?” Finn asked when Kurt finally closed the door and walked toward the bed, unbuttoning his snazzy vest. He looked absolutely gorgeous tonight. Every bit the rising star he really was, and Finn was happy, at least, that their friends seemed happy for them.
“He just got here. He doesn’t get us theatre types, so she told him he could finish his shift and come in on a later flight, as long as he bit the bullet and spent some time with her parents.”
Finn chuckled. “Good trade, I guess. At least he didn’t have to sit in for a rousing rendition of ‘Don’t Stop Believing.’ I’d like to hang out with Dwayne again, sure.”
“I don’t really blame Puck, Mercedes, and Quinn for not bringing their partners. We’re kind of an insular group, actually.” He tossed his vest on the chair and started on his dress shirt. “I have to wonder what Tina’s girlfriend thought.”
“Puck’s brought Katie before,” Finn said.
“True, but now they have Billy.” Kurt leaned against the dresser, shirt half-open. “Maybe I’ll ask Tina and Santana if their girls felt welcome...”
“I’m just so mad at Mr. Schue!” Finn exploded.
Kurt raised a brow.
Finn looked up and crossed his arms. His face felt warm... because that had been sort of childish, but... “He got so weird after he knew that you and I were together, and...” He huffed again. “When you went off with the girls, he started asking me all these weird, awkward questions...”
“Oh, honey, he’s always been weird and awkward about the gay thing.”
“No, in high school, he was better about-”
“No, he wasn’t.” Kurt shook his head, on the verge of laughing, but holding it back. “I mean, I never expected you to see it. You weren’t out in high school. You didn’t even think of it as a possibility, and he saw you as his golden boy because he related to you.” He pursed his lips. “I was always either, well, completely invisible to him, or he’d pull me into his office and misinterpret what I was trying to tell him, not that I was that good at talking “straight” back then. Or he’d try to get me to wear drag in exchange for a chance at a solo. He was awful.”
Kurt suddenly laughed and touched his cheek. “God, he was awful. Do you remember how he used to tell us all that crazy stuff about Spanish culture and Santana just would look like she was chewing glass? Oh, and when he told Mercedes she couldn’t have a solo, but we’d find something for her to ‘dip in chocolate’ later?”
“I thought he was a great teacher!” Finn protested. He slumped his shoulders over. “In high school I felt so dumb and awkward. He made me feel like, I dunno. Like I was special.”
“Except for those times a new guy joined the club, and he ignored you for weeks while giving solos to the other guy instead? Or when he let Jesse St. James stick around after saying you danced like a constipated zombie?”
Finn pouted. “I just thought, of all my teachers, he’d be the most supportive. Of us. I don’t think I really want to tell any of them, unless you want to talk to Señor Martinez. You know. I felt like Mr. Schue and I were really close.”
“Friend him on Facebook.” Kurt shrugged. “And upload those pictures from Fire Island.” He smiled sympathetically at Finn’s hang-dog expression. “I’m sorry he’s not like you remembered. But he’s only human. And he’s pretty homophobic, you know, in that subtle ‘I’mma Nice Guy so I Don’t Have Problems with Those People’ kind of way. If it makes you feel better, finding out that his favorite student was heteroflexible all along might make him a better teacher.”
“Huh.” Finn sat there sulking for a minute. “It kind of does. And he said he’d be at the wedding.”
Kurt sat next to Finn, knitting his brows and rubbing his chest. Finn’s hand moved under Kurt’s open shirt, and he grinned, just a little. Kurt’s skin was so warm, like he was flushed and ready for his fiancé.”
“I guess...” Finn sighed and rubbed Kurt’s back with one hand. “I’m ever more disappointed that he wasn’t to you what he was to me. You really could’ve used someone in your corner.”
Kurt rose and straddled Finn’s legs, pushing him back on the bed. “I had you.”
Finn fell back, but he wasn’t ready to drop the subject just yet. Kurt was too good at deflecting, so sometimes Finn had to push to make sure he was okay and not just covering up with jokes and cute smiles. “Um, first of all, not until things got like, dire, ‘cause I was a jerk-”
Kurt shrugged and drawled, “You were a high school boy.”
“-and second, ew to the idea to comparing Mr. Schue’s relationship to me with ours!”
Kurt chuckled and pushed his hands through Finn’s hair. “I had my dad, then. When I wanted him. Also, Lauren was a pretty good body guard, when we became friends. No, things haven’t been easy. They never were for me, even before Glee. Even before high school, and I could have used a teacher who cared more, or tried to tell me that I was okay... Sue was kind of like that. Sometimes. In the worst of ways. Not that I was ever deluded about how crazy and terrible she was to everyone.”
“Nobody was. But she did like you. Like way more than she liked any of us.”
Kurt leaned his head to one side. “Yeees, because I kept winning Nationals championships for her when she screwed things up and pissed off her Cheerios.”
“Hm.” Finn pulled Kurt down for a kiss. “Well, I liked seeing you doing flying splits.”
“You did not! You didn’t even look at me then.” Kurt pouted. “I was not on your radar at all.”
“Um... senior year? You guys did that big Rihanna number for the school...?”
Kurt chuckled wickedly deep in his throat and started to kiss Finn’s neck. “I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it,” he sang softly.
“You promise?” Finn moved his hand down Kurt’s back and ground his hips against him. Just thinking about that Rihanna routine... it had put their “Push It” debacle to shame. “Y’know what I didn’t expect when I was in high school?”
“What?” Kurt leaned forward and brushed his nose against Finn’s. He moved from sexy to coy and innocent so deftly.
Finn’s hands drifted further downward. “This ass.”
“Ah!” Kurt gasped and gave Finn’s face a light slap. “You should have. I wore my pants tight enough.”
“Oh, God. You did!” Finn laughed. Now he needed to dig out some pictures from high school, when he’d repeated the ‘just friends’ mantra to himself so often that it had started to lose meaning. “I just tried to avoid looking at it.”
“My ass is insulted!”
Finn grinned lopsidedly. “Guess I’ll just have to make it up to it now.”
“Hmm. How could you do that... I wonder...”
Kurt licked over his lips slowly, then unbuttoned Finn’s pants and slipped his hands inside. With a predatory look in his eyes and a strategic squeeze, Kurt had Finn yelping loud enough that the people in the next room had probably heard.
“I thought... Mm!” Finn moved back as Kurt kissed his lips hungrily, then sucked on his lower lip, his hard cock rubbing against the front of Finn’s pants. “Uh... What about your-”
“I think your ass needs something first,” Kurt practically growled. Their lips came together again, and Kurt squeezed Finn’s left cheek hard.
Of all the things Finn hadn’t expected in his life, this side of Kurt might be his favorite.
*Comps = Comprehensive exams: part of the hell English majors are put through on their way to Ph.D. prior to their dissertation. Involves booklists that are either preset by the department or chosen by you and your advisors, and it functions like an essay exam on steroids. I’ve recently started reading my department’s lists.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments posted there. Please comment there using OpenID or your DW account.
Pair: Kinn
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~4880
Prompt: “Things Mr. Schue didn't expect to find at the 5th Annual William McKinley High School Reunion.”-- I’m taking this to mean of Glee Club. From finnkurt Summer Prompt Meme.
Summary: Five years after his original Gleeks graduated from high school, Will Schuester meets them at Breadsticks for their reunion, only to be confused and surprised by his kids. Unfortunately, some of the Gleeks likewise don’t get what they expected.
Notes: AU after S2 Duets. Kurt never went to Dalton, and most of S3 never happened. This isn’t so flattering to Mr. Schue. Jumps from Schue’s pov in the first part to Finn’s in the second.
When you’re a teacher, particularly of teens and under, your students are always your kids. They may think, later, that you don’t remember them, but that’s not quite true... It’s more that they stop aging for you when they leave your class. Forever frozen in your mind by their most noticeable traits. Sometimes you don’t recognize them because you are seeing someone else.
Will Schuester looked over the restaurant, observing his students as they entered, and each time, there was the jarring moment between Then and Now.
Quinn walked in first. Still prompt, intense, and with flaxen hair framing her face. At first he saw the slim wisp of a cheerleader, the mean girl, the one who twisted the boys around her until they were so tangled they could only do what she demanded, even as she was tearing them down. The one who had every girl following after her out of fear and admiration.
Her face was softened, now. Her body had matured with the rest of her, full of curves and strength. Her hair was cut with a razor’s edge around her face, and rectangular glasses perched on her nose. She wore an off the shoulder plum-colored blouse and flared jeans, still sporting a sense of style (though radically different than before), and at some point in the evening, he heard her talking to Mercedes about the new graduate program she’d started at OSU in Gender Studies.
Brittany seemed unchanged in temperament, but wore an asymmetrical cropped haircut, dangly mismatched earrings and bracelets, and a men’s suit vest and tie with her skirt and blouse. Odd, but Will hadn’t really seen her much out of the cheerleading uniform. She bounced in and hugged Santana’s girlfriend Elena as though they should be very best friends. Santana seemed softer as well. She didn’t seem as angry, anyway, even if she occasionally got that wily look in her eye.
The four girls sat together, talking about their careers. (Apparently Brittany’s eclectic outfit had something to do with her interning at a fashion magazine.) Funny, because Will had expected them to be gossiping about boys and their relationships, like always. Mercedes did, at one point in the evening, show them her engagement ring, however. When prompted, Quinn said that she’d ordered her boyfriend to stay at home and study for comps*.
When Rachel walked in, she was alone. That was a bit of a jolt, because Will had thought Finn would be on her arm. Maybe he was late? Hadn’t they gotten back together? The others didn’t turn to bask in her light at all, either, though Quinn did turn first when she noticed her and rose to give her a hug. Rachel seemed more demur, and put together. Something about her makeup made her look soft and sensual in a way that made Will a little uncomfortable. In high school, she’d always worn a lot of makeup, it seemed, making her big features kind of garish and striking. Not that she wasn’t pretty. She just looked quite noticably different.
And instead of babbling loudly about all of her accomplishments as a Broadway actress in New York, she listened to her friends with a sort of sad, nostalgic smile on her face. She even prompted questions, and clapped her hands when the girls shared good news. Eventually, Will himself asked what she was up to, and she replied that she was finishing up an acting program at NYU that she’d switched into after she decided musical theatre wasn’t really for her. It didn’t reach a big enough audience, and working on a set was very different from working on the stage, not that she didn’t want to do a little stage when she had the chance! Also, her teachers had really critiqued her emotional performances.
“Dr. Bellefleur told me I act like I’m orgasming when I hit my top notes,” she giggled. “God, that was embarrassing.”
“Didn’t Kurt tell you that once?” Santana asked. “Didn’t I tell you that once?”
“He did, and you did, and so I wasn’t that shocked, honestly. Thanks for bracing me! He also said I’m always pulling faces like I just had a botox injection and don’t trust my muscles to move the right way.”
The others laughed again.
“My teachers are really helping, though. I don’t know how they know how to tell me what to do, but they do. And it always works. I’ve started recording everything so I can see what I’m doing and work on it. I’ve sung in the mirror before, but it’s not exactly the same.”
The boys piled in, all looking as coiffed and spirited as he’d ever seen them during performances, with the exception of Puck who was in a bit of a disarray, because apparently his little boy had thrown a fit before he’d left the house and his wife couldn’t get the baby to calm without Puck singing to him.
“That’s the most adorable thing ever. You’d better have pictures,” Mercedes warned. “I can’t believe you didn’t bring him.”
“All he does in restaurants is scream,” Puck argued. “No one wants that! It’s too late for him to be up, anyway.”
“You’re still local, right?” Rachel said.
“I’m co-managing Burt’s tire shop now,” Puck said with a shrug. “I’m actually not bad at it. The guys are really cool, and we grab some kids here and there, give ‘em something to do besides knock over convenience stores.”
“It’s about time someone did,” Quinn said with an approving nod.
“We opened a second location in Westerville, so I bounce between the two. It’s way better than pools, though.” Puck rolled his eyes. “For starters, everyone here has a car.”
Mike and Tina danced around one another a bit awkwardly, introducing their... girlfriends to each other. Will was a little confused about that, though no one else seemed to be. Mihn and Veronica seemed a little jealous, but they all seemed to work it out well enough by sitting on different sides of the table.
Oddly, Finn still hadn’t appeared. That had been sort of a disappointment. Will had been looking forward to seeing him most of all, and he hadn’t heard from Finn in a while. He’d even missed last year’s reunion. Not that all of the kids came every year; they came when they could and did their best to stay in touch. Will tended to lose touch with them much faster than they did each other.
Now that all of his students had their Facebooks, sometimes students would “friend” him, so he could keep up with them. Not as many of them had as he’d expected, since that was supposedly their “space” these days. Puck mostly posted pictures of his kid and ‘liked’ things his friends were saying (busy working man). Quinn posted a nonstop stream of “I signed this petition” and “I’m going to be at this protest” and “The Republicans are being outrageous!” links. Santana posted a lot of pictures and memes that made Will laugh or gasp (and he couldn’t open at work), in addition to pictures and videos from her performances. As did Mercedes and Mike, sometimes, but they forgot to update, otherwise. Rachel seemed to update every five minutes with posts that didn’t actually make Schue understand anything that she was doing with her life. Occasionally, he’d read a comment from one of the girls on her posts that gave him a clue.
Finn hadn’t friended Will. He’d actually talked about doing it during their first year in Glee, but not been able to figure out Facebook, even with some rather pointed help from Kurt. So Will was really at the mercy of the group, or asking direct questions of Burt if he ever ran into him, to get that kind of information.
The group settled into their salads and started sipping wine. Will felt vaguely like he should tell them that drinking was bad, but now they were all old enough to do it, even the younger ones, and they all did, with the exception of Puck. Will wondered if it was a religious thing when he turned to Artie and, for some reason, pumped a fist with a “Shalom!”
They were all chattering away in the section that Breadsticks had set aside for them when Finn finally walked in, with Kurt by his side. Will wondered momentarily why they’d arrived together, but then told himself that, of course, they’d probably gone to visit their family first, and he rose to greet Finn with a big hug.
The girls attacked Kurt and started talking with him excitedly, as though they hadn’t seen him in years. Will missed most of it as he brought Finn over to the guys’ side of the table.
“Sorry we’re so late,” Finn said. “Our flight was delayed. It was ridiculous. But Kurt flipped out his phone and got us rebooked on the next flight before the poor folks behind the desk even realized the original would be cancelled for mechanical difficulties.”
He looked behind him, then motioned to Puck, who fetched another chair. Will frowned a little as Finn touched Kurt’s shoulder. Kurt looked up at him with a light smile as Finn pulled the chair back a little.
Huh. Well. Maybe they’d had a rough flight.
Veronica passed them down a menu, and the two of them leaned over it.
“I’ll just have a salad...”
“The capellini pomodoro is pretty light.” “Hm. What are you having?”
“The bacon-encrusted fried porkbutt.”
Kurt gaped up at Finn with a sense of scandal in his eyes, and the others laughed.
“What?” Finn said with mock-innocence and a big, lopsided grin. “Hey, if we’re gonna go out, I wanna get something Kurt won’t let me have at home!”
“That’s what I do when I go out without Katie!” Puck agreed.
“I though you ordered fish,” Artie said. “Not porkbutt.”
Mercedes reached over and patted Finn’s hand. “You have my sympathy. But I ordered already, so Kurt can’t guilt me into eating light lettuce.”
“Hey!” Kurt complained. “I am not that bad. I’m on a Food Judging 12-steps program.”
“I’ll never be free,” Finn sighed, mournfully.
“Oh, quit complaining. You love my cooking.”
“I just wanna feel like I’m being bad,” Finn laughed. “Let’s just share. You get ah... ah, zesty calamari salad, and I’ll get the portobello ravioli... I bet the sun-dried tomato sauce isn’t as good as yours, though.”
“Well, mine includes chardonnay, chervil, and glitter,” Kurt told him with a big smile.
When the waitress came by, Santana snapped her fingers at the woman, who raised a brow, but smiled like she remembered this group of noisy kids that met every year. Kurt leaned over to scope out Mercedes’ ring, while Finn ordered for them.
Finn reached over to the appetizers sitting in the middle of the table and ladled some mussels and liquor into a bowl, which he pulled closer for himself and Kurt to share. He dug into the mussels, listening as everyone talked. After trying a mussel for himself, he offered one to Kurt, who ate it out of his hand, sipping the juice gracefully, and nodded, scrunching up his nose, with approval.
It was nice how... close they were. Will hadn’t realized they lived together now. But that was fine. They were brothers, after all. Kurt sure seemed to have helped Finn broaden his palate from burgers and pizza.
“It’s about damn time,” Kurt said, looking at Mercedes’ ring again. “I was about to come out to L.A. and do my old football routine for Dwayne.”
“Oh, go easy on the boy. He just gets intimidated by all o’this.” Mercedes did a shimmy. Kurt laughed and hugged her with one arm.
“When are you tying the knot?” Santana accused, pointing at him.
Kurt waved his left hand around in the air. “Oh, we’re waiting until after the show. I’m just so exhausted all the time; it’s hard for me to plan.”
“And I honestly couldn’t care less if we have carnations or gladiolas at the tables,” Finn said.
“Those are some really terrible flowers for a wedding,” Kurt objected, sounding almost put-out that Finn would want that.
Finn pushed his lower lip up, looking confused. “What is a non-terrible flower for a wedding?”
“Um... for example, stephanotis?”
“The-whaaa?”
Now Kurt was smiling again. “The little white trumpet flowers.”
“Ohhh.. Well, those are cute. I don’t even know the names of weddingy flowers. All the more reason I’m not in charge of the planning, though,” Finn quipped, with a shrug of his shoulders.
Rachel clasped her hands together and rested her chin on them. “Ohhh, I’m so excited! Pleaaaase let me sing something at your wedding. One thing. I’ll even duet, if I get to sing. Oh! Me and Mercedes! Right?”
Will tilted his head to the side. “I didn’t know you were seeing anyone, Kurt.”
Every eye turned to him, some with looks of shock, some (like Santana) with deep amusement. Even the new girlfriends looked at him funny.
“Um.” Finn scratched the back of his head.
That was when Will caught the little silver glint on Finn’s left hand. Will blinked and frowned, trying to figure out what his kids (22-23 year old kids) were staring at him about.
“You could say I’m ‘seeing’ someone,” Kurt breezed.
Apparently the rest of them knew this already. Maybe Kurt had them all on his Facebook and they’d seen his updated relationship status?
Just then, the waitress returned with Kurt’s salad and a couple of wine glasses for them. “We’ll get your entrees right out, guys,” she promised.
“Oh, this is already delicious,” Santana hissed at Elena, and she balled her fists in enjoyment. Elena laughed and draped herself over Santana’s shoulders.
“This is already insane,” Quinn drawled. “But not surprising, strangely.”
Will looked at Kurt again. “I’m not sure I understand...”
The young man’s lips were curving, almost smirking. He seemed taller. Like he was at ease in his skin and could command the world (and apparently airline workers). Will remembered Kurt as a small, soft-spoken boy. Toothpick arms, girlish outfits, his peeping (sometimes strident) voice. He made the club’s costumes with Tina and Mercedes, who kept him from going overboard with the feathers. Sometimes he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, certainly. Kurt had gotten picked on a lot, but Finn had always stood up for him. He could see why Kurt would be so attached to Finn because of that, but the way they were together was a little... much. Especially if Kurt had a boyfriend now.
Finn was now frowning deeply and eyeing Will almost like he was angry. His hand touched Kurt’s knee.
“Dude,” Puck said suddenly, breaking the silence. “They’re gay.”
A wave of laughter came from the group.
“What?” He looked around at all of them. They had to be joking.
“Mr. Schue, Kurt’s my fiancé,” Finn said seriously.
“We can’t blame him for missing the whole ‘we’re dating’ thing,” Kurt said, reaching over to thread his fingers through Finn’s. He rubbed his thumb over Finn’s, causing Finn’s irritation to fade. “I haven’t been to the last three reunions.”
Kurt quirked his mouth to the side and sang to the others, “Sorry!”
“You should be,” Mercedes teased. “We’ve missed you!”
Rachel pulled a frownie face with her lips and drew one with her fingers.
“I’ve been busy,” Kurt protested. He pointed at Rachel. “You have no excuse not to see me.”
“Yeah, but some of us manage to keep up with the obvious anyway,” Tina said. She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes into slits. “You knew I was bi, right? I mean, you were just looking at Veronica because... Weren’t you?”
Will raised his brows and tried to think of what to say. His reaction elicited more laughter.
“But Tina was always bi,” Mike said. He shook his head. “I mean... We’ll obviously, she was always bi, but we always knew that.”
“I’d say our engagement has been a more recent revelation.” Kurt chuckled as he cut up their salad. “Oh. Mr. Schue.”
Like he was sighing over something their particularly dumb dog had done.
“I don’t know how I missed that,” Will muttered.
“Yeah, ‘cause I was talking about the trip Kurt and I took together at the last reunion I went to,” Finn said, giving him another perturbed look.
“I must have misunderstood.” Will shook his head and laughed at himself. “Well. Um... congratulations on the wedding!”
“You’re all invited,” Finn said. “Y’know, when we actually start sending out invites. Until then we’ll just kinda be one of those cool couples that coasts along being engaged forever.”
Kurt lifted his left hand and wiggled his fingers to show off the ring, with a big grin.
“That’s not a very big diamond,” Santana said. “It looks like a silver band from here.”
“It is a band, you gold digger. I’m not Beyoncé.”
Rachel laughed as she grabbed Kurt’s arm.
“Well, not on the weekdays, anyway,” he joked. “There are some stones, but they’re not diamonds. It’s three cubic zirconias set diagonally in polished tungsten carbide.” He leaned forward so Santana could get a better look.
Finn held up his hand. “Mine’s tungsten carbide with a brushed center and polished rim.”
“I’m so proud of you for memorizing that,” Kurt said.
“Hey! It’s awesome. And it looks cool and the shiny part matches yours, and won’t scratch when I’m at gigs and stuff,” Finn said proudly. “And it was like $150 bucks!”
“I’m not cheap,” Kurt said, as though he’d argued this before. “I just didn’t want us to be wearing the cost of buying a really nice apartment on our hands.” He shrugged and smiled. “But mine has jewels, because I like bling!”
Finn laughed and grabbed him around the shoulders before pressing a kiss to his head.
“You should’ve seen the Alexander McQueen rings we were looking at,” Kurt said.
“Dude, those were ugly and expensive!” Finn complained.
“I thought you’d find skulls cool!”
“They are,” Puck agreed.
“No, dude. They were ugly.” Finn shook his head and sipped his wine. “And they cost like three times as much as Kurt’s ring. What the hell?”
“You just don’t get fashion,” Kurt teased.
“Whatever, you wanted a pretty ring, too.” Finn forked the untouched salad.
“Well, I am Beyoncé,” Mercedes said dramatically, flashing her ring again.
“Work!” Kurt snapped his fingers in the air to punctuate.
Their entrees arrived, and the table’s conversation splintered into numerous little discussions about different things going on in their lives. Will figured he’d try to talk to Finn later and find out more details about this, really very huge, development in his life. Finn didn’t seem that different from high school, or even from the last time he’d seen him. Though in high school he’d been less decisive and sometimes a little overwhelmed and spacey. He was more focused now, definitely, but there were other things that had changed, even if Will couldn’t put his finger on them. Nor could he chalk them up to Finn’s band apparently getting gigs now.
The whole thing unsettled Will in a way he couldn’t put his finger on, either. Though Finn certainly looked comfortable there, with one hand always on Kurt as they ate their dinner, drank their wine, and talked to their friends.
***
Finn punched a pillow on the hotel bed. He sat down and huffed. A moment later, Kurt opened the door, but didn’t enter. He was still talking to Mercedes about the four of them going out for dinner together before heading back to their respective coasts.
“Dwayne’s in town?” Finn asked when Kurt finally closed the door and walked toward the bed, unbuttoning his snazzy vest. He looked absolutely gorgeous tonight. Every bit the rising star he really was, and Finn was happy, at least, that their friends seemed happy for them.
“He just got here. He doesn’t get us theatre types, so she told him he could finish his shift and come in on a later flight, as long as he bit the bullet and spent some time with her parents.”
Finn chuckled. “Good trade, I guess. At least he didn’t have to sit in for a rousing rendition of ‘Don’t Stop Believing.’ I’d like to hang out with Dwayne again, sure.”
“I don’t really blame Puck, Mercedes, and Quinn for not bringing their partners. We’re kind of an insular group, actually.” He tossed his vest on the chair and started on his dress shirt. “I have to wonder what Tina’s girlfriend thought.”
“Puck’s brought Katie before,” Finn said.
“True, but now they have Billy.” Kurt leaned against the dresser, shirt half-open. “Maybe I’ll ask Tina and Santana if their girls felt welcome...”
“I’m just so mad at Mr. Schue!” Finn exploded.
Kurt raised a brow.
Finn looked up and crossed his arms. His face felt warm... because that had been sort of childish, but... “He got so weird after he knew that you and I were together, and...” He huffed again. “When you went off with the girls, he started asking me all these weird, awkward questions...”
“Oh, honey, he’s always been weird and awkward about the gay thing.”
“No, in high school, he was better about-”
“No, he wasn’t.” Kurt shook his head, on the verge of laughing, but holding it back. “I mean, I never expected you to see it. You weren’t out in high school. You didn’t even think of it as a possibility, and he saw you as his golden boy because he related to you.” He pursed his lips. “I was always either, well, completely invisible to him, or he’d pull me into his office and misinterpret what I was trying to tell him, not that I was that good at talking “straight” back then. Or he’d try to get me to wear drag in exchange for a chance at a solo. He was awful.”
Kurt suddenly laughed and touched his cheek. “God, he was awful. Do you remember how he used to tell us all that crazy stuff about Spanish culture and Santana just would look like she was chewing glass? Oh, and when he told Mercedes she couldn’t have a solo, but we’d find something for her to ‘dip in chocolate’ later?”
“I thought he was a great teacher!” Finn protested. He slumped his shoulders over. “In high school I felt so dumb and awkward. He made me feel like, I dunno. Like I was special.”
“Except for those times a new guy joined the club, and he ignored you for weeks while giving solos to the other guy instead? Or when he let Jesse St. James stick around after saying you danced like a constipated zombie?”
Finn pouted. “I just thought, of all my teachers, he’d be the most supportive. Of us. I don’t think I really want to tell any of them, unless you want to talk to Señor Martinez. You know. I felt like Mr. Schue and I were really close.”
“Friend him on Facebook.” Kurt shrugged. “And upload those pictures from Fire Island.” He smiled sympathetically at Finn’s hang-dog expression. “I’m sorry he’s not like you remembered. But he’s only human. And he’s pretty homophobic, you know, in that subtle ‘I’mma Nice Guy so I Don’t Have Problems with Those People’ kind of way. If it makes you feel better, finding out that his favorite student was heteroflexible all along might make him a better teacher.”
“Huh.” Finn sat there sulking for a minute. “It kind of does. And he said he’d be at the wedding.”
Kurt sat next to Finn, knitting his brows and rubbing his chest. Finn’s hand moved under Kurt’s open shirt, and he grinned, just a little. Kurt’s skin was so warm, like he was flushed and ready for his fiancé.”
“I guess...” Finn sighed and rubbed Kurt’s back with one hand. “I’m ever more disappointed that he wasn’t to you what he was to me. You really could’ve used someone in your corner.”
Kurt rose and straddled Finn’s legs, pushing him back on the bed. “I had you.”
Finn fell back, but he wasn’t ready to drop the subject just yet. Kurt was too good at deflecting, so sometimes Finn had to push to make sure he was okay and not just covering up with jokes and cute smiles. “Um, first of all, not until things got like, dire, ‘cause I was a jerk-”
Kurt shrugged and drawled, “You were a high school boy.”
“-and second, ew to the idea to comparing Mr. Schue’s relationship to me with ours!”
Kurt chuckled and pushed his hands through Finn’s hair. “I had my dad, then. When I wanted him. Also, Lauren was a pretty good body guard, when we became friends. No, things haven’t been easy. They never were for me, even before Glee. Even before high school, and I could have used a teacher who cared more, or tried to tell me that I was okay... Sue was kind of like that. Sometimes. In the worst of ways. Not that I was ever deluded about how crazy and terrible she was to everyone.”
“Nobody was. But she did like you. Like way more than she liked any of us.”
Kurt leaned his head to one side. “Yeees, because I kept winning Nationals championships for her when she screwed things up and pissed off her Cheerios.”
“Hm.” Finn pulled Kurt down for a kiss. “Well, I liked seeing you doing flying splits.”
“You did not! You didn’t even look at me then.” Kurt pouted. “I was not on your radar at all.”
“Um... senior year? You guys did that big Rihanna number for the school...?”
Kurt chuckled wickedly deep in his throat and started to kiss Finn’s neck. “I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it,” he sang softly.
“You promise?” Finn moved his hand down Kurt’s back and ground his hips against him. Just thinking about that Rihanna routine... it had put their “Push It” debacle to shame. “Y’know what I didn’t expect when I was in high school?”
“What?” Kurt leaned forward and brushed his nose against Finn’s. He moved from sexy to coy and innocent so deftly.
Finn’s hands drifted further downward. “This ass.”
“Ah!” Kurt gasped and gave Finn’s face a light slap. “You should have. I wore my pants tight enough.”
“Oh, God. You did!” Finn laughed. Now he needed to dig out some pictures from high school, when he’d repeated the ‘just friends’ mantra to himself so often that it had started to lose meaning. “I just tried to avoid looking at it.”
“My ass is insulted!”
Finn grinned lopsidedly. “Guess I’ll just have to make it up to it now.”
“Hmm. How could you do that... I wonder...”
Kurt licked over his lips slowly, then unbuttoned Finn’s pants and slipped his hands inside. With a predatory look in his eyes and a strategic squeeze, Kurt had Finn yelping loud enough that the people in the next room had probably heard.
“I thought... Mm!” Finn moved back as Kurt kissed his lips hungrily, then sucked on his lower lip, his hard cock rubbing against the front of Finn’s pants. “Uh... What about your-”
“I think your ass needs something first,” Kurt practically growled. Their lips came together again, and Kurt squeezed Finn’s left cheek hard.
Of all the things Finn hadn’t expected in his life, this side of Kurt might be his favorite.
*Comps = Comprehensive exams: part of the hell English majors are put through on their way to Ph.D. prior to their dissertation. Involves booklists that are either preset by the department or chosen by you and your advisors, and it functions like an essay exam on steroids. I’ve recently started reading my department’s lists.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments posted there. Please comment there using OpenID or your DW account.