Fic: Four Times Sam Didn't Manage to Ask Kurt... [Glee, Sam/Kurt, PG]
I've been watching Glee for over a year, but a couple of months ago I somehow fell head-first into the fandom. Fic happened! Oops?
Title: Four Times Sam Didn't Manage to Ask Kurt to Prom and One Time He (Kind of) Succeeded
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Sam/Kurt
Rating: PG
Word count: ~2300
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Notes: Thanks to maccadole for the beta. The song Sam sings is Fountains of Wayne's Prom Theme. Written before RHGS aired; possible spoilers up to and including Duets.
"You like him, don't you?" Sam looks up, shocked, as she asks the question.
"What? Who? Kurt? No." His eyes flick to the left and back, only for a split second, but it gives Quinn her answer. She's not too upset, really. Sam is cute, and if not for the fact that she's been suspecting something like this pretty much from the start, she might have been. But the way Sam looked at Kurt during his one-man duet tipped her off, and she's been seeing longing looks (in both directions!) ever since.
"I knew it," Quinn says. Sam still looks somewhat like a deer in headlights.
"Quinn, I'm-" he starts, which is only further confirmation.
"What are you going to do about it?" she interrupts him.
"I - aren't you mad?" He's not as terrified anymore. Instead, he looks surprised. Quinn shakes her head.
"I've known this was coming all along." She smiles, perhaps a touch deviously. "I'm going to set you up with him. So, what are you going to do about it?"
---
1
Quinn stays behind after rehearsal. She wants to know how this is going to play out, and besides, she's not entirely sure that Sam is going to go through with their plan. He seemed very nervous when they discussed it. And Quinn really wants them to work out. Kurt has somehow become one of her friends, and she likes Sam, and she wants this to work out.
When Sam takes a deep breath and asks Kurt, "Can I talk to you for a moment?", Quinn quickly picks up her bag and leaves. She stops outside the door, though, and listens. Sam is saying something. Quinn can't quite make out the words. After a moment she realizes it's because they aren't in English. Sam is speaking in the Avatar language again. Sam is asking Kurt to go to prom with him - or really, probably, to the "big dance" or something; she's pretty certain those Avatar creatues have no word for prom - in the Avatar language. She's about to make up some excuse to go back in there, but Sam, thank God, switches back to English.
"It's Na'vi. You know, the Avatar language?" He sounds uncertain. "It means-"
"Sam, that's great, but I have to go. My dad's got a follow-up appointment at the hospital, and I really want to be there for it." And Kurt leaves the choir room, swinging his bag onto his shoulder as he walks quickly towards the exit. Quinn is relieved to see this, at least. If it wasn't just an excuse to get away, maybe Sam hasn't totally blown his chances after all. Despite the Na'vi.
Quinn shakes her head and goes back into the choir room to talk to Sam.
2
"Mr. Schuester, I have something I'd like to sing." Sam sounds kind of nervous, but determined too.
"Go ahead," Mr. Schue says, and sits down. Sam gets up to stand by the piano.
"Okay," Sam says. "I'm kind of nervous right now. The song I've chosen has a very important message for someone in the club, and I hope they get it." He twists around to nod at Brad, who starts playing, and Quinn's eyes widen slightly. She knows that intro.
Sam does look a little uncertain while singing the first verse. "We'll forget each other's names..." Quinn is not sure what made him pick this song, she's not entirely sure it's the message he was going for, but she knows the chorus will at least be better.
Of course, then he starts on the first line of the chorus, and he's looking straight at her. "But tonight we'll reach for the stars..." She gets it, she knows he's just nervous, but why is he looking at her? In this situation that's about the worst thing he could do. She widens her eyes and nods toward Kurt, and Sam's eyes widen slightly too as he realizes what he's doing and looks away from her. He's still nervous, though, and doesn't look at Kurt for more than a couple of seconds at a time. Several times, his eyes flick to her again, before he realizes what he's doing and looks back to Kurt. Quinn shakes her head slightly. This is not going well. He at least manages to look at Kurt for the last two lines. "It's a perfect night, to sing our prom theme."
Kurt doesn't seem to get it, though. (Understandably - Sam isn't being too clear about it, and as far as Kurt knows, he's straight.) Sam smiles weakly at the applause from the club, and then sits down again, shoulders slumping slightly.
"Thank you, Sam!" Mr. Schue says. He seems to be waiting for someone to speak, but no one does, and he shrugs and starts rehearsal.
"What went wrong?" Sam asks her afterwards. "I mean, I know the song wasn't perfect, but I thought the chorus would be good, at least?"
"It was okay," Quinn says, "only you kept looking at me. As far as Kurt knows we're still dating. He probably thinks you were asking me to go to prom with you."
Sam sighs. "I know. I just got nervous. Asking Kurt out in front of everyone, and it was my first solo, and... You at least knew what I was doing, why I was singing that song, that I was singing it to him. I just wanted to know if I was doing alright. I screwed up, didn't I?"
"Don't worry about it," Quinn says. "You can ask him later."
3
Quinn's phone beeps. She looks at it and sees "1 new message" on the display, and she has a feeling it's from Sam. She's not entirely sure she wants to hear what he's got to say. Him asking Kurt to prom is turning out to be much harder than she'd ever anticipated. When she found out that Kurt is tutoring Sam in English, she told him to take advantage of the time alone together, especially since Kurt can't really have any appointments to run off to when he's supposed to be spending time with Sam. But considering how well it's been going so far… She takes a deep breath and opens the text.
It consists of one word: fail. She calls him. He picks up right away; that figures. He's probably been sitting around with his phone in his hand ever since he sent the text.
"Hello, Sam."
"Hi, Quinn." Yeah, just as she thought. He doesn't exactly sound overjoyed. So either he failed to get the question out, again, or Kurt turned him down. Quinn is willing to bet it's not the second, because she's seen Kurt looking at Sam just as much as Sam has been looking at Kurt.
"So how did it go?" she asks him, though she pretty much knows the answer already. "Do you have a date to prom?"
"Not exactly," Sam admits. "I... Well, I decided maybe asking him in French would be romantic?"
"Sam, you don't speak French," Quinn points out.
"I know that. But he does, and I figured that was more important. I used one of those translation sites, figured out what I was going to say..."
"Which one?" Quinn asks, barely managing to hold back a sigh.
"Babelfish?" Sam says uncertainly. This time, Quinn does sigh.
"Babelfish is terrible."
"I noticed!" She can basically hear Sam blushing. "And also it turns out my pronunciation could use some work."
"Why didn't you just repeat it in English? I'm sure Kurt would have appreciated the gesture, even if you didn't quite pull it off."
"I was going to! I was just trying to work up to it, and then…" Quinn suddenly knows what's coming.
"Finn burst in, didn't he?"
"Oh yeah," Sam says. "He didn't even want anything, not really, he just… stayed. Forever. Talking about nothing."
"He does that," Quinn said. Normally she thinks it's kind of cute, the way Finn gets enthusiastic about completely random things, but when it gets in the way of things like this it gets annoying.
"And then Kurt's dad came in and said it was almost ten and that I had to leave," Sam finishes.
"Okay," Quinn says. "Well, clearly doing it in another language isn't working out. And asking through song didn't exactly work either."
"Yeah," Sam says. He sounds tired.
"Hey," Quinn says. "He's going to say yes. But he needs to understand that you're asking him something, and get what the actual question is, for that to happen. That's why tomorrow, after glee rehearsal, you're going to ask him again. In English. And not through song. Okay?"
"Fine," Sam says, but he sounds somewhat dejected.
4
Once again, Sam asks Kurt for a moment of his time. This time he does it during a break in rehearsal instead of afterwards. This is the strategy they came up with; if they still have half of glee rehearsal left Kurt probably isn't going to run off, at least, and even if Finn interrupts, Quinn can drag him off, leaving Sam and Kurt alone. Also, she has made Sam swear that he's going to speak English, and that he's not going to sing. She really thinks the fourth time may be the charm.
"Yes?" Kurt says once Sam has been silent for a few seconds. Well, Quinn allows, it might be the charm if Sam manages to actually ask Kurt.
"Well, I was thinking... see..." Sam trails off again, blushing, and Kurt raises an eyebrow.
"Sam?"
"I was wondering... Would you like..." Quinn sighs. At this rate, the break will be over before Sam manages to get the question out. Kurt looks confused. Quinn doesn't know why asking Kurt out is turning out to be such a problem for Sam. Maybe, she muses, it's because the thing with Kurt is more real than his thing with her ever was.
"Do you want to..." Sam trails off again. Quinn shakes her head and stands up. When Sam turns around as if to leave, mumbling something about going to the bathroom, she steps in. She's next to Sam with a few quick steps and grabs his wrist...
5
... pulling him back around to face Kurt.
"Kurt," she says. "What Sam is trying to ask you is, do you want to go to prom with him?" Sam blushes. Kurt looks like he doesn't believe it.
"I-what?" he says, confused. Quinn nods. "But aren't you guys..."
"Not any more. Sam has been trying to ask you for a couple of weeks now, I'm not sure if you've noticed." Understanding seems to be dawning. Along with it, a smile is slowly spreading across Kurt's face.
"That's what the... the French, and the Avatar, and the song?" He's full-out grinning now, an expression Quinn realizes she's possibly never seen on his face. It looks good. Setting them up was the right choice, she decides, as she notices that the expression on Sam's face is matching that on Kurt's.
"Yeah," she says. "I just couldn't stand watching it any longer, I had to step in."
"So will you?" Sam asks finally, still sounding nervous despite the huge smile on his face.
"Of course I will!" Kurt says, still sounding like he hardly believes his luck. Quinn realizes she's still holding onto Sam's wrist. She uses her grip to hold Sam's hand out towards Kurt, and Kurt smiles and links his fingers with Sam's. Quinn lets go and goes back to her seat. As she sits down, Mr. Schue comes back in, and they start working on choreography again.
---
Quinn looks out over the sea of dancing students. Somewhere, Sam and Kurt are pressed close together, swaying to the music. (Quinn knows Rachel would be horrified at the "so-called ‘dancing'" going on here tonight, except there's no room for anything more extravagant. Besides, Sam and Kurt certainly looked happy the last time she spotted them.)
While there are no slushies at prom, she'd still be worried, perhaps, if she didn't know the entire glee club is watching out for them. They are spread out in the room, in pairs or alone, and while it's not something they've explicitly agreed to do, she knows they're all keeping an eye on Sam and Kurt, ready to stave off any trouble. Even Puck is out there somewhere, and though he'd never admit it to anyone, he's ready to threaten (or beat) anyone who dares make a fuss into submission.
He comes up to her then, hands her a drink, and she sips it carefully. Yeah, that's spiked, alright. She thanks Puck and he smiles at her.
The song ends, something with a faster beat starts, and suddenly she can see Sam and Kurt coming towards her. They're holding hands, and they both wave at her when they go past. They're both smiling, huge grins just like when she finally took matters into her own hands and asked Kurt for Sam. Their faces are flushed; she's not sure if it's from the dancing or from the alcohol in the punch, though her bet would be on the former.
She smiles and raises her cup. "To a job well done," she says.
"What?" Puck asks. She's not sure if it's because he didn't hear her over the music or because he doesn't know what she means. He touches his cup to hers anyway, in what would be a clink if the cups weren't plastic.
"Nothing," she says, and smiles before taking another sip.
Title: Four Times Sam Didn't Manage to Ask Kurt to Prom and One Time He (Kind of) Succeeded
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Sam/Kurt
Rating: PG
Word count: ~2300
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Notes: Thanks to maccadole for the beta. The song Sam sings is Fountains of Wayne's Prom Theme. Written before RHGS aired; possible spoilers up to and including Duets.
"You like him, don't you?" Sam looks up, shocked, as she asks the question.
"What? Who? Kurt? No." His eyes flick to the left and back, only for a split second, but it gives Quinn her answer. She's not too upset, really. Sam is cute, and if not for the fact that she's been suspecting something like this pretty much from the start, she might have been. But the way Sam looked at Kurt during his one-man duet tipped her off, and she's been seeing longing looks (in both directions!) ever since.
"I knew it," Quinn says. Sam still looks somewhat like a deer in headlights.
"Quinn, I'm-" he starts, which is only further confirmation.
"What are you going to do about it?" she interrupts him.
"I - aren't you mad?" He's not as terrified anymore. Instead, he looks surprised. Quinn shakes her head.
"I've known this was coming all along." She smiles, perhaps a touch deviously. "I'm going to set you up with him. So, what are you going to do about it?"
---
1
Quinn stays behind after rehearsal. She wants to know how this is going to play out, and besides, she's not entirely sure that Sam is going to go through with their plan. He seemed very nervous when they discussed it. And Quinn really wants them to work out. Kurt has somehow become one of her friends, and she likes Sam, and she wants this to work out.
When Sam takes a deep breath and asks Kurt, "Can I talk to you for a moment?", Quinn quickly picks up her bag and leaves. She stops outside the door, though, and listens. Sam is saying something. Quinn can't quite make out the words. After a moment she realizes it's because they aren't in English. Sam is speaking in the Avatar language again. Sam is asking Kurt to go to prom with him - or really, probably, to the "big dance" or something; she's pretty certain those Avatar creatues have no word for prom - in the Avatar language. She's about to make up some excuse to go back in there, but Sam, thank God, switches back to English.
"It's Na'vi. You know, the Avatar language?" He sounds uncertain. "It means-"
"Sam, that's great, but I have to go. My dad's got a follow-up appointment at the hospital, and I really want to be there for it." And Kurt leaves the choir room, swinging his bag onto his shoulder as he walks quickly towards the exit. Quinn is relieved to see this, at least. If it wasn't just an excuse to get away, maybe Sam hasn't totally blown his chances after all. Despite the Na'vi.
Quinn shakes her head and goes back into the choir room to talk to Sam.
2
"Mr. Schuester, I have something I'd like to sing." Sam sounds kind of nervous, but determined too.
"Go ahead," Mr. Schue says, and sits down. Sam gets up to stand by the piano.
"Okay," Sam says. "I'm kind of nervous right now. The song I've chosen has a very important message for someone in the club, and I hope they get it." He twists around to nod at Brad, who starts playing, and Quinn's eyes widen slightly. She knows that intro.
Sam does look a little uncertain while singing the first verse. "We'll forget each other's names..." Quinn is not sure what made him pick this song, she's not entirely sure it's the message he was going for, but she knows the chorus will at least be better.
Of course, then he starts on the first line of the chorus, and he's looking straight at her. "But tonight we'll reach for the stars..." She gets it, she knows he's just nervous, but why is he looking at her? In this situation that's about the worst thing he could do. She widens her eyes and nods toward Kurt, and Sam's eyes widen slightly too as he realizes what he's doing and looks away from her. He's still nervous, though, and doesn't look at Kurt for more than a couple of seconds at a time. Several times, his eyes flick to her again, before he realizes what he's doing and looks back to Kurt. Quinn shakes her head slightly. This is not going well. He at least manages to look at Kurt for the last two lines. "It's a perfect night, to sing our prom theme."
Kurt doesn't seem to get it, though. (Understandably - Sam isn't being too clear about it, and as far as Kurt knows, he's straight.) Sam smiles weakly at the applause from the club, and then sits down again, shoulders slumping slightly.
"Thank you, Sam!" Mr. Schue says. He seems to be waiting for someone to speak, but no one does, and he shrugs and starts rehearsal.
"What went wrong?" Sam asks her afterwards. "I mean, I know the song wasn't perfect, but I thought the chorus would be good, at least?"
"It was okay," Quinn says, "only you kept looking at me. As far as Kurt knows we're still dating. He probably thinks you were asking me to go to prom with you."
Sam sighs. "I know. I just got nervous. Asking Kurt out in front of everyone, and it was my first solo, and... You at least knew what I was doing, why I was singing that song, that I was singing it to him. I just wanted to know if I was doing alright. I screwed up, didn't I?"
"Don't worry about it," Quinn says. "You can ask him later."
3
Quinn's phone beeps. She looks at it and sees "1 new message" on the display, and she has a feeling it's from Sam. She's not entirely sure she wants to hear what he's got to say. Him asking Kurt to prom is turning out to be much harder than she'd ever anticipated. When she found out that Kurt is tutoring Sam in English, she told him to take advantage of the time alone together, especially since Kurt can't really have any appointments to run off to when he's supposed to be spending time with Sam. But considering how well it's been going so far… She takes a deep breath and opens the text.
It consists of one word: fail. She calls him. He picks up right away; that figures. He's probably been sitting around with his phone in his hand ever since he sent the text.
"Hello, Sam."
"Hi, Quinn." Yeah, just as she thought. He doesn't exactly sound overjoyed. So either he failed to get the question out, again, or Kurt turned him down. Quinn is willing to bet it's not the second, because she's seen Kurt looking at Sam just as much as Sam has been looking at Kurt.
"So how did it go?" she asks him, though she pretty much knows the answer already. "Do you have a date to prom?"
"Not exactly," Sam admits. "I... Well, I decided maybe asking him in French would be romantic?"
"Sam, you don't speak French," Quinn points out.
"I know that. But he does, and I figured that was more important. I used one of those translation sites, figured out what I was going to say..."
"Which one?" Quinn asks, barely managing to hold back a sigh.
"Babelfish?" Sam says uncertainly. This time, Quinn does sigh.
"Babelfish is terrible."
"I noticed!" She can basically hear Sam blushing. "And also it turns out my pronunciation could use some work."
"Why didn't you just repeat it in English? I'm sure Kurt would have appreciated the gesture, even if you didn't quite pull it off."
"I was going to! I was just trying to work up to it, and then…" Quinn suddenly knows what's coming.
"Finn burst in, didn't he?"
"Oh yeah," Sam says. "He didn't even want anything, not really, he just… stayed. Forever. Talking about nothing."
"He does that," Quinn said. Normally she thinks it's kind of cute, the way Finn gets enthusiastic about completely random things, but when it gets in the way of things like this it gets annoying.
"And then Kurt's dad came in and said it was almost ten and that I had to leave," Sam finishes.
"Okay," Quinn says. "Well, clearly doing it in another language isn't working out. And asking through song didn't exactly work either."
"Yeah," Sam says. He sounds tired.
"Hey," Quinn says. "He's going to say yes. But he needs to understand that you're asking him something, and get what the actual question is, for that to happen. That's why tomorrow, after glee rehearsal, you're going to ask him again. In English. And not through song. Okay?"
"Fine," Sam says, but he sounds somewhat dejected.
4
Once again, Sam asks Kurt for a moment of his time. This time he does it during a break in rehearsal instead of afterwards. This is the strategy they came up with; if they still have half of glee rehearsal left Kurt probably isn't going to run off, at least, and even if Finn interrupts, Quinn can drag him off, leaving Sam and Kurt alone. Also, she has made Sam swear that he's going to speak English, and that he's not going to sing. She really thinks the fourth time may be the charm.
"Yes?" Kurt says once Sam has been silent for a few seconds. Well, Quinn allows, it might be the charm if Sam manages to actually ask Kurt.
"Well, I was thinking... see..." Sam trails off again, blushing, and Kurt raises an eyebrow.
"Sam?"
"I was wondering... Would you like..." Quinn sighs. At this rate, the break will be over before Sam manages to get the question out. Kurt looks confused. Quinn doesn't know why asking Kurt out is turning out to be such a problem for Sam. Maybe, she muses, it's because the thing with Kurt is more real than his thing with her ever was.
"Do you want to..." Sam trails off again. Quinn shakes her head and stands up. When Sam turns around as if to leave, mumbling something about going to the bathroom, she steps in. She's next to Sam with a few quick steps and grabs his wrist...
5
... pulling him back around to face Kurt.
"Kurt," she says. "What Sam is trying to ask you is, do you want to go to prom with him?" Sam blushes. Kurt looks like he doesn't believe it.
"I-what?" he says, confused. Quinn nods. "But aren't you guys..."
"Not any more. Sam has been trying to ask you for a couple of weeks now, I'm not sure if you've noticed." Understanding seems to be dawning. Along with it, a smile is slowly spreading across Kurt's face.
"That's what the... the French, and the Avatar, and the song?" He's full-out grinning now, an expression Quinn realizes she's possibly never seen on his face. It looks good. Setting them up was the right choice, she decides, as she notices that the expression on Sam's face is matching that on Kurt's.
"Yeah," she says. "I just couldn't stand watching it any longer, I had to step in."
"So will you?" Sam asks finally, still sounding nervous despite the huge smile on his face.
"Of course I will!" Kurt says, still sounding like he hardly believes his luck. Quinn realizes she's still holding onto Sam's wrist. She uses her grip to hold Sam's hand out towards Kurt, and Kurt smiles and links his fingers with Sam's. Quinn lets go and goes back to her seat. As she sits down, Mr. Schue comes back in, and they start working on choreography again.
---
Quinn looks out over the sea of dancing students. Somewhere, Sam and Kurt are pressed close together, swaying to the music. (Quinn knows Rachel would be horrified at the "so-called ‘dancing'" going on here tonight, except there's no room for anything more extravagant. Besides, Sam and Kurt certainly looked happy the last time she spotted them.)
While there are no slushies at prom, she'd still be worried, perhaps, if she didn't know the entire glee club is watching out for them. They are spread out in the room, in pairs or alone, and while it's not something they've explicitly agreed to do, she knows they're all keeping an eye on Sam and Kurt, ready to stave off any trouble. Even Puck is out there somewhere, and though he'd never admit it to anyone, he's ready to threaten (or beat) anyone who dares make a fuss into submission.
He comes up to her then, hands her a drink, and she sips it carefully. Yeah, that's spiked, alright. She thanks Puck and he smiles at her.
The song ends, something with a faster beat starts, and suddenly she can see Sam and Kurt coming towards her. They're holding hands, and they both wave at her when they go past. They're both smiling, huge grins just like when she finally took matters into her own hands and asked Kurt for Sam. Their faces are flushed; she's not sure if it's from the dancing or from the alcohol in the punch, though her bet would be on the former.
She smiles and raises her cup. "To a job well done," she says.
"What?" Puck asks. She's not sure if it's because he didn't hear her over the music or because he doesn't know what she means. He touches his cup to hers anyway, in what would be a clink if the cups weren't plastic.
"Nothing," she says, and smiles before taking another sip.