Colours part one (Doctor Who crossover)
Title: Colours (Part One)
Author: mogamus_ii
Rating: PG13
Pairing: Finn/Kurt
Spoilers: Up to Furt (AU from there on)
Summary: Crossover with Doctor Who. A strange man tries to stop Kurt going to Dalton. The Warblers are not what they seem. Finn is struggling with strange feelings for his stepbrother and really doesn’t know how to deal with Kurt’s suddenly cold behavior.
Warnings: AU because of telepathic!Kurt. I started this a while ago, and assumed that Kurt was living at Dalton.
It’s a shame that the man is such a lunatic, because Kurt thinks that they would have got on well with each other, or at least bonded over their unique fashion senses. When the gangly man with the floppy hair and questionable eyebrows had grabbed his arm, Kurt really should have known from his first glance that this was a mad man. He was, after all, wearing a bow tie and braces. He had to be either insane or genius.
‘No, no, no, you do not want to go in there,’ was how he swooped into Kurt’s life, bony fingers closing around his arm as Kurt stepped through the gates of Dalton Academy, in uniform for the first time. Kurt jumped and possibly squeaked. There was a flinch in there too, but that was perfectly expected considering that he’d spent the last few weeks jumping every time he heard a locker slam. He shook his arm away.
‘Actually, I do want to.’
‘No. There is bad. Really nasty.’
It registered then that this strange man had a British accent. You don’t get those a whole lot in Lima.
‘What do you mean bad?’ Kurt asked suspiciously.
‘Well, I mean bad bad. Monsters bad.’
Kurt snorted.
‘If you’re looking for monsters in schools, I think you want McKinley High. They come neatly packaged in football uniforms. Now, sorry, I have to go.’ He darted away and was through the gates before the man could stop him. Then, he hesitated.
‘I love the bow tie, by the way.’
‘Bow ties are cool.’
The man seemed slightly out of it, Kurt thought as he turned towards Dalton and Blaine. His new life.
The Doctor watched the soprano walk away and had a very, very bad feeling.
***
Finn was moping. He was in Kurt's- in his basement, moping.
Kurt was gone. Kurt was gone and for some reason beyond friendship and sort of brothers, that made Finn feel really bad. The same sort of bad that he had felt when he saw the photo of That Guy In Uniform in Kurt's locker. A bad that would be jealousy if Kurt was a girl and Finn liked him. But Kurt wasn't and Finn didn't. Or something.
Finn checked his phone again.
'I'll ring you,' Kurt had said and smiled indulgently, as if to a pestering toddler when Finn had whined about him leaving. 'Every evening, if you want me to, okay?'
And he had. Until today, because today Finn’s phone had stayed silent.
He found Kurt's number and his thumb hovered over the call button. Should he? There could be a reason that Kurt hadn't phoned him. But he said he would, and Kurt always remembered important stuff like that. But maybe Kurt didn't think that Finn was important anymore now he had Blaine? (That was his name, right? Blaine?)
Decisively, Finn pressed call.
You’ve reached Kurt’s phone. Please leave a message. Beep.
***
'Heard from Kurt?' Was how Mercedes greeted Finn the next morning.
'No,' Finn said tiredly, trying not to look like he had been staying up all night waiting in vain for the opening bars of Defying Gravity to start playing tinnily from his cell's speakers.
'Damn that boy, he's going to be in trouble when I next see him,' she fumed, 'he was meant to phone me last night.
'Me too,' Finn said.
'Right.' Mercedes nodded, then swept away up the hall, spotting Tina by her locker.
Finn stood in silence for a few minutes, unsure of what to do. He remembered when he used to have proper conversations with girls other than Rachel. Kurt was the catalyst for their conversation. Without him there, Finn felt like he'd been separated. Set adrift.
Finn hadn't realised how much he would miss his stepbrother.
***
'Hey Finn!'
His mom bustled into the kitchen, all shopping bags, big puffy coat and winter air.
'Kurt's coming home for the weekend, isn't that nice?'
It was probably sad, or bad, or something, that that made Finn’s week.
'Is anyone coming with him?' Finn asked tentatively, hoping that the answer would be....
'No.'
Finn's heart lifted a little higher. What was wrong with him?
****
He rushed to the door when the bell rang, heart pounding louder, it seemed, than it ever had before when opening the door revealed Kurt on the doorstep.
'Hey!' He bounced on his toes. Kurt smiled. The smile was small and cold and made Finn's excitement vanish faster than it had arrived.
'Hello Finn,' Kurt marched past him and Finn wondered why he had a birdcage, of all things. He also wondered what he had done to get the cold shoulder like this.
It wasn't just him, Kurt didn't hug anyone. He said his hellos quickly, clutching the cage tightly in his hand and vanished down to the basement as soon as he could get away.
Finn followed him and found the smaller boy standing in the middle of the room, cage at his feet.
'Don't you want to be back?' Finn asked. Kurt turned, looking at him with pale green eyes. Finn felt icy cold.
'Of course I do,' Kurt said with a false smile. He was lying, Finn was sure.
'Why are you lying?'
In its cage the bird cocked its head at the sound of Finn's voice, staring up at him with beady black eyes. Kurt smiled.
'Oh look. Pavarotti likes you.'
'Why were you lying?' Finn asked doggedly, refusing to be deterred.
'I'm not.' Kurt smiled again, just as coldly. Finn reached out a hand to touch his shoulder and Kurt stepped backwards quickly, eyes lit up with a sudden flare of anger.
'Don't touch me!' he snarled.
'Whoa, dude, sorry.' Finn took a couple of hesitant steps backwards, wondering what had made Kurt act this way. Had Karofsky done something? Had he followed Kurt to Dalton?
Kurt turned on his heel and marched away upstairs, leaving Finn standing there cluelessly.
'Trrrp, trrrp.' Pavarotti fluttered against the bars and Finn crouched down to look at the bright yellow bird.
'Hi,' he said, 'I bet you know what's up with Kurt.'
'Trrrp,' Pavarotti clattered his beak and sidled along his perch. Finn frowned as he noticed small patches of black on the bird’s feathers, like wet paint.
'What happened to you?' He wondered, flicking open the latch on the cage door and reaching in carefully. The bird sat still, letting him pick it up gently in his hand. Carefully he lifted it out of the cage.
'Hey, you. You're kind of cute, only I bet that Blaine guy gave you to Kurt, so maybe I don't like you a whole lot....'
There was a sound from the stairs and Pavarotti started wriggling and squawking, twisting around to peck sharply at Finn's hand. Thick black liquid oozed from under his feathers and between Finn's fingers.
'Finn, what are you doing?' Kurt marched down the stairs and Finn had never seen him look so angry. 'Pavarotti! What have you done to him? God, you are so stupid!'
'I didn't- there was this black stuff and...' Finn trailed off, waving his hand at Kurt who just glowered back at him. He took the bird gently from Finn and shut him back in his cage.
'That's it. You're obviously angry at me and don't want me here. So, I’ll leave.' He turned to march back up the stairs but Finn grabbed his arm.
'No, don't go. I'm not angry. And your dad misses you so much; you can’t leave just after you arrived.'
'Fine,' Kurt said, shaking him off, 'I'll stay tonight. But don't think I’ll be going anywhere near you. I'll sleep on the couch.'
And once again, Finn was left befuddled.
He mooched around in the basement for the rest of the evening after cleaning the gloop off his fingers. He just couldn't understand why Kurt was acting like this, he must've done something wrong. But what? And why had Kurt stopped phoning? And, most importantly, just what was he keeping in that cage?
Finn didn't go to dinner, reluctant to face Kurt again after their fight. He fed his mom some lie about feeling ill and curled up under the covers of Kurt’s old bed. It still smelt of him, the old Kurt. The one who danced with him and laughed and hugged. He buried his face in the pillow and inhaled deeply, only feeling a tiny bit like an idiot.
His Kurt. The one that loved him.