Fic: Mother's Day
Title: Mother's Day
Disclaimer: I don't own em, I if I did glee would probably have to be on a different channel.
Rating: PG
Characters: Kurt, the Glee Club
Warnings: None really
Word count 2407
Summary: The Glee Club decides to help Kurt through Mother's Day
A/N: For this prompt over at glee_angst_meme Thanks to birdiesisland for the beta!
Kurt could remember back when he was little, and every year in class a well meaning teacher would tell them they were going to make Mother’s day cards, or projects. And every year past the age of six, Kurt would slump lower in his seat, and would have to come up with something else to do to occupy his time. As he got older, this was less likely to occur in school, and when he reached high school, it all but stopped. Except for some strange, unexplainable reason, Mr. Schuester thought it would be a fabulous idea for their weekly assignment to find songs that would be appropriate for mother’s day.
Once again, Kurt finds himself slumping down in his seat a little. He can feel both Mercedes and Artie watching him in concern, and a few other eyes linger on him as well, but he ignores them. It isn’t until Rachel’s hand shoots up into the air, that he feels some of the attention get diverted off himself.
“Mr. Schuester, I’m sure you’re aware not all of us have mothers.” She says, slightly indignant. “I have two Dads for one, and Kurt’s mother passed away years ago. It hardly seems like a fair assignment.” Kurt feels eyes flicker back to him, like the others are waiting to see where he stands on the subject he simply nods a little.
“Of course Rachel,” Mr. Schuester says, and suddenly he looks uncomfortable, as if maybe he hadn’t considered this particular argument. Oh sure, Rachel usually could argue something, but he hadn’t really thought about it, she did have a point, two of his students did lack mothers, and while he could easily switch the assignment up slightly, it still seemed to be unfair. So instead, he smiled at her.
“You and Kurt can work on something together then, why don‘t you guys get together and figure out what you‘d like to do. Maybe you guys can come up with something for us to use at Regionals.” He says, as if that solved all their problems. Kurt on the other hand slumps lower in his seat, because this is even worse. He feels Artie pat his shoulder in condolence, and Mercedes is squeezing his hand hard enough that he’s kind of loosing the feeling in his fingers, but he smiles reassuringly at his friends and gets up to follow Rachel, who’s already heading out the door.
He trails after her until they reach an empty classroom, and once there she turns to smile brightly at him. In that slightly over eager sort of way that makes Kurt actually feel a little bad for her. He tries to smile back, but he’s pretty sure it came out as a weak grimace at best. She doesn’t seem to notice as she hops up on the teacher’s desk, patting the spot next to her. He obliges without really thinking about it.
“So it looks like we’ll be doing a duet.” Rachel says, because in her mind, there is really no maybe about this. She and Kurt would be doing a duet, it would just be finding one they could both agree on that would be tricky, but she was pretty sure they could find something. They had Broadway at the very least.
“Right.” Kurt answers and he sounds tired even to his own ears. Part of him regrets that, wishes he could have sounded at least a little bit enthused about the prospect of a duet, but really, he is tired. He’s tired of the pitying looks he gets every time mother’s day rolls around. He’s tired of it always being pointed out that his mother is gone.
They settle in a slightly awkward silence, which is almost unheard of considering Rachel Berry and Kurt Hummel were in the same room together. In theory, they should have been talking or in their case, arguing a mile a minute about anything, but as it is, Kurt’s retreated into himself and Rachel’s watching him with barely concealed worry. It’s no secret they weren’t particularly close, but she could only imagine how hard this time of year must be for him. She never had a mother, but he did, and he had been living without her longer than he’d been with her, and she knew that had to hurt. Especially around the time of year where everything was flooded with mother’s day.
“Are you alright?” Rachel asks finally and Kurt starts a little at her voice.
“Fine.” He responds automatically, and Rachel shifts a little, putting her hand on his arm.
“I always feel a little left out around mother’s day you know.” she says, treading carefully because she isn’t really sure how Kurt will take her well-meaning words.
“Do you?” Kurt asks, and he sounds genuinely curious. “I thought you were perfectly happy with your Dads, that it didn’t bother you.”
“It doesn’t bother me really, but I still grew up without a mom. So every Mother’s Day I would just end up making my Dads something.”
“That must have been hard.” Kurt glances at her slightly.
“Maybe a little, but my Dads love me and that’s the important part. Still, it’s hard when every year it was thrown in my face.”
“I get that.” Kurt agrees, and when Rachel squeezes his arm just a little bit, Kurt scrubs a hand wearily over his face. “I thought we would stop having to do this kind of thing once we reached high school.”
“Do you remember her?” Rachel flinches at her own question and she looks over at Kurt, ready to apologize, but he actually answers her, which is surprising all on its own.
“Just a little. I seem to remember things that don‘t seem particularly important. Like she was a phenomenal cook, but she couldn’t bake. Like at all, not even pre-made stuff. I remember her perfume, things like that. I figure the most important thing is that she loved me, that I remember.”
“Yeah, it’s the most important part.” Rachel agrees, but her hearts in her throat and it’s breaking for the boy seated beside her, because he remembers a little, but not enough, and it’s killing him. She can see it is. She wishes she could do something for him, but she can’t. She wishes she knew how exactly how she died. No one seems to know, and Kurt didn’t talk about it. She’s not quite brave enough to ask, so instead she just changes the subject. She claps her hands, and Kurt jerks a bit in surprise.
“Well, what do you say we get started, we could find a really good duet for the pair of us I’m sure.” She said pulling out her iPod, and beginning to thumb through it. Kurt sits motionless next to her for just a moment longer before he gives himself a visible shake and mimics the action. They exchange very minimal conversation for the rest of the time spent together.
****************
“I need to talk to you.” Rachel corners Finn the next morning before he’s even had time to get to his locker.
“Look, if this is about you and Kurt I don’t-” but she cuts him off before he can finish the sentence.
“No, we’re fine. Listen, I’m worried about him though. The whole mother’s day thing, it’s hard, especially for him.” And Finn’s face softens a little, and he tilts his head a bit, almost like a curious bird.
“Is he ok?”
“I don’t know really. I think he’s suffering from some melancholy, and he probably just wants mother’s day to be over.” She twists a piece of hair around her finger nervously. “I think we should do something nice for him. Try and take his mind off it.”
Finn seems to think that’s a good idea, and the two come up with a quick game plan before separating and tracking down the other members of Glee, sans Kurt of course. Everyone agrees that yes, Kurt is most likely in some need of cheering up and they all think they can do things to help. So either singly, or in pairs, they beginning to plan what they can do to cheer him up.
On Friday, while the others talk about what songs they decided on for their projects in Glee, Rachel keeps Kurt as occupied as she can, going over their choice of a duet, over and over until they could do it in their sleep. They do a wonderful rendition of ‘Anything You Can Do’ and they have so much fun with it, Mr. Schue tells them he’s going to try to work it into their routine at sectionals. Once Glee ends, they officially put operations “Distract Kurt” into motion.
They had the best of intentions, even if it didn’t always seem to work.
On the following Saturday, Mercedes holes up with Kurt in the basement. It isn’t unusual for them to spend at least part of the weekend together. However, she’s particular attentive to him, lets him pick all the movies they watch, and agrees with all the makeover comments he makes when they flip through the magazines. She’s pretty sure he knows something is up, but he keeps quiet about it. When she leaves, she hugs him, something she doesn’t often indulge in, and makes him promise to call her if he needs anything.
On the following Sunday, Quinn asks him to go with her to shop for maternity clothes. She takes him to Columbus so they can go shopping and hang out away from the stress of Lima. If he knows what she’s doing, he doesn’t say anything. Of course Kurt likes to shop, and he‘s come to rather like Quinn, so he may have just assumed she wanted his help in picking out clothes. He does pick out a fabulous outfit for her after all.
On the Monday before mother‘s day, Brittany and Santana decide to take him out, but from what Rachel heard later, the two became a little to involved with each other, and Kurt fled the immediate area for fear he may go blind. He had been a little leery to go out with the pair to begin with, and Rachel was certain he would never go out with the two together ever again.
On the Tuesday before mother‘s day, Matt and Mike take him to a baseball game. Kurt had been hesitant at first, because he’s exchanged maybe four words with Mike and even less with Matt, and he isn’t exactly sure why either of them would be inviting him out. Nevertheless, he goes with them, and takes a fly ball to the face for his trouble. It bruises and swells and both boys feel terrible about it, but Kurt just shrugs and says he had a good time up until that point.
On the Wednesday before mother‘s day, Finn takes him roller skating, because he knows that Kurt is actually good at skating. It’s a shame Finn is not, and they spend more time on the ground then they do upright, because every time Finn goes down he reaches out to steady himself and his bulk drags Kurt down too. However, Kurt laughs, and Finn considers it a win, even if they are both covered in bruises the next day.
On the Thursday before mother‘s day, Rachel invites him to see the new musical with her at the local theater. It’s absolutely awful, and it’s a little painful to watch, but worst of all, it’s all about someone’s crazy mother. Rachel feels like a heel for not reading the description better, but Kurt for the most part doesn’t seem to mind. Only until the big musical number and his face scrunches up like he’s in pain, but that‘s more because it‘s simply awful than anything else. Later they both agree not to watch any more musicals at the Lima playhouse.
On the Friday before mother‘s day, Artie takes him to this sci fi thing a few towns over, and Kurt is a little freaked out by the rampant crazy fan freak-outs that are going on. Artie seems to be having the time of his life however, and Kurt has to admit, that alone makes it well worth the trip. He enjoys seeing Artie like this, not so self-conscious like he is at school, worrying about whom is going to make fun of him next. Several people greet him by name. Kurt just goes along for the ride, but has to admit, it was kind of fun, in its own way.
On the Saturday before mother‘s day, Tina takes him to this paint war place, that makes him wear a horrifically ugly jumpsuit and safety goggles. However, he’s glad for the crime against fashion once he’s covered in paint and Tina is laughing hysterically. He’s never really heard Tina laugh so freely before, and he can’t help but smile. He‘ll be washing paint out of his hair for days, but he thinks it was worth it, he did have fun.
On Mother’s day, for some strange reason Noah Puckerman shows up on his doorstep. Kurt had long since figured out what the others were doing, trying to ease the stress of mother’s day for him. He figured it out when Santana and Brittany had taken him out actually, but he was touched by their thoughtfulness and didn’t want to burst their bubble by letting them know. So he just watches Puck a little warily, because he is a little surprised to see him there.
“Hello Puck.” He greets, and Puck nods shortly before he sits down on the bench seat of the porch and Kurt sits on the swing. They’re silent for several moments before Puck starts talking.
“There’s a club, it’s the missing parents club and you’re not in it until you’re in it, and I’m just…really sorry that you’re in it.” And he says it so genuinely, that Kurt believes him.
“I’m sorry you are too.” Kurt says and Puck nods in response. “Would you like to come in?”
“Sure.” And that’s how Kurt Hummel found himself spending Mother’s Day with the last person he ever expected to. Still, it was better than spending it alone.
That particular mother’s day would live in his mind as the best one he’d had since his mother had died, because he knew, really knew, that his friends cared, and that made it easier to bear.
Disclaimer: I don't own em, I if I did glee would probably have to be on a different channel.
Rating: PG
Characters: Kurt, the Glee Club
Warnings: None really
Word count 2407
Summary: The Glee Club decides to help Kurt through Mother's Day
A/N: For this prompt over at glee_angst_meme Thanks to birdiesisland for the beta!
Kurt could remember back when he was little, and every year in class a well meaning teacher would tell them they were going to make Mother’s day cards, or projects. And every year past the age of six, Kurt would slump lower in his seat, and would have to come up with something else to do to occupy his time. As he got older, this was less likely to occur in school, and when he reached high school, it all but stopped. Except for some strange, unexplainable reason, Mr. Schuester thought it would be a fabulous idea for their weekly assignment to find songs that would be appropriate for mother’s day.
Once again, Kurt finds himself slumping down in his seat a little. He can feel both Mercedes and Artie watching him in concern, and a few other eyes linger on him as well, but he ignores them. It isn’t until Rachel’s hand shoots up into the air, that he feels some of the attention get diverted off himself.
“Mr. Schuester, I’m sure you’re aware not all of us have mothers.” She says, slightly indignant. “I have two Dads for one, and Kurt’s mother passed away years ago. It hardly seems like a fair assignment.” Kurt feels eyes flicker back to him, like the others are waiting to see where he stands on the subject he simply nods a little.
“Of course Rachel,” Mr. Schuester says, and suddenly he looks uncomfortable, as if maybe he hadn’t considered this particular argument. Oh sure, Rachel usually could argue something, but he hadn’t really thought about it, she did have a point, two of his students did lack mothers, and while he could easily switch the assignment up slightly, it still seemed to be unfair. So instead, he smiled at her.
“You and Kurt can work on something together then, why don‘t you guys get together and figure out what you‘d like to do. Maybe you guys can come up with something for us to use at Regionals.” He says, as if that solved all their problems. Kurt on the other hand slumps lower in his seat, because this is even worse. He feels Artie pat his shoulder in condolence, and Mercedes is squeezing his hand hard enough that he’s kind of loosing the feeling in his fingers, but he smiles reassuringly at his friends and gets up to follow Rachel, who’s already heading out the door.
He trails after her until they reach an empty classroom, and once there she turns to smile brightly at him. In that slightly over eager sort of way that makes Kurt actually feel a little bad for her. He tries to smile back, but he’s pretty sure it came out as a weak grimace at best. She doesn’t seem to notice as she hops up on the teacher’s desk, patting the spot next to her. He obliges without really thinking about it.
“So it looks like we’ll be doing a duet.” Rachel says, because in her mind, there is really no maybe about this. She and Kurt would be doing a duet, it would just be finding one they could both agree on that would be tricky, but she was pretty sure they could find something. They had Broadway at the very least.
“Right.” Kurt answers and he sounds tired even to his own ears. Part of him regrets that, wishes he could have sounded at least a little bit enthused about the prospect of a duet, but really, he is tired. He’s tired of the pitying looks he gets every time mother’s day rolls around. He’s tired of it always being pointed out that his mother is gone.
They settle in a slightly awkward silence, which is almost unheard of considering Rachel Berry and Kurt Hummel were in the same room together. In theory, they should have been talking or in their case, arguing a mile a minute about anything, but as it is, Kurt’s retreated into himself and Rachel’s watching him with barely concealed worry. It’s no secret they weren’t particularly close, but she could only imagine how hard this time of year must be for him. She never had a mother, but he did, and he had been living without her longer than he’d been with her, and she knew that had to hurt. Especially around the time of year where everything was flooded with mother’s day.
“Are you alright?” Rachel asks finally and Kurt starts a little at her voice.
“Fine.” He responds automatically, and Rachel shifts a little, putting her hand on his arm.
“I always feel a little left out around mother’s day you know.” she says, treading carefully because she isn’t really sure how Kurt will take her well-meaning words.
“Do you?” Kurt asks, and he sounds genuinely curious. “I thought you were perfectly happy with your Dads, that it didn’t bother you.”
“It doesn’t bother me really, but I still grew up without a mom. So every Mother’s Day I would just end up making my Dads something.”
“That must have been hard.” Kurt glances at her slightly.
“Maybe a little, but my Dads love me and that’s the important part. Still, it’s hard when every year it was thrown in my face.”
“I get that.” Kurt agrees, and when Rachel squeezes his arm just a little bit, Kurt scrubs a hand wearily over his face. “I thought we would stop having to do this kind of thing once we reached high school.”
“Do you remember her?” Rachel flinches at her own question and she looks over at Kurt, ready to apologize, but he actually answers her, which is surprising all on its own.
“Just a little. I seem to remember things that don‘t seem particularly important. Like she was a phenomenal cook, but she couldn’t bake. Like at all, not even pre-made stuff. I remember her perfume, things like that. I figure the most important thing is that she loved me, that I remember.”
“Yeah, it’s the most important part.” Rachel agrees, but her hearts in her throat and it’s breaking for the boy seated beside her, because he remembers a little, but not enough, and it’s killing him. She can see it is. She wishes she could do something for him, but she can’t. She wishes she knew how exactly how she died. No one seems to know, and Kurt didn’t talk about it. She’s not quite brave enough to ask, so instead she just changes the subject. She claps her hands, and Kurt jerks a bit in surprise.
“Well, what do you say we get started, we could find a really good duet for the pair of us I’m sure.” She said pulling out her iPod, and beginning to thumb through it. Kurt sits motionless next to her for just a moment longer before he gives himself a visible shake and mimics the action. They exchange very minimal conversation for the rest of the time spent together.
****************
“I need to talk to you.” Rachel corners Finn the next morning before he’s even had time to get to his locker.
“Look, if this is about you and Kurt I don’t-” but she cuts him off before he can finish the sentence.
“No, we’re fine. Listen, I’m worried about him though. The whole mother’s day thing, it’s hard, especially for him.” And Finn’s face softens a little, and he tilts his head a bit, almost like a curious bird.
“Is he ok?”
“I don’t know really. I think he’s suffering from some melancholy, and he probably just wants mother’s day to be over.” She twists a piece of hair around her finger nervously. “I think we should do something nice for him. Try and take his mind off it.”
Finn seems to think that’s a good idea, and the two come up with a quick game plan before separating and tracking down the other members of Glee, sans Kurt of course. Everyone agrees that yes, Kurt is most likely in some need of cheering up and they all think they can do things to help. So either singly, or in pairs, they beginning to plan what they can do to cheer him up.
On Friday, while the others talk about what songs they decided on for their projects in Glee, Rachel keeps Kurt as occupied as she can, going over their choice of a duet, over and over until they could do it in their sleep. They do a wonderful rendition of ‘Anything You Can Do’ and they have so much fun with it, Mr. Schue tells them he’s going to try to work it into their routine at sectionals. Once Glee ends, they officially put operations “Distract Kurt” into motion.
They had the best of intentions, even if it didn’t always seem to work.
On the following Saturday, Mercedes holes up with Kurt in the basement. It isn’t unusual for them to spend at least part of the weekend together. However, she’s particular attentive to him, lets him pick all the movies they watch, and agrees with all the makeover comments he makes when they flip through the magazines. She’s pretty sure he knows something is up, but he keeps quiet about it. When she leaves, she hugs him, something she doesn’t often indulge in, and makes him promise to call her if he needs anything.
On the following Sunday, Quinn asks him to go with her to shop for maternity clothes. She takes him to Columbus so they can go shopping and hang out away from the stress of Lima. If he knows what she’s doing, he doesn’t say anything. Of course Kurt likes to shop, and he‘s come to rather like Quinn, so he may have just assumed she wanted his help in picking out clothes. He does pick out a fabulous outfit for her after all.
On the Monday before mother‘s day, Brittany and Santana decide to take him out, but from what Rachel heard later, the two became a little to involved with each other, and Kurt fled the immediate area for fear he may go blind. He had been a little leery to go out with the pair to begin with, and Rachel was certain he would never go out with the two together ever again.
On the Tuesday before mother‘s day, Matt and Mike take him to a baseball game. Kurt had been hesitant at first, because he’s exchanged maybe four words with Mike and even less with Matt, and he isn’t exactly sure why either of them would be inviting him out. Nevertheless, he goes with them, and takes a fly ball to the face for his trouble. It bruises and swells and both boys feel terrible about it, but Kurt just shrugs and says he had a good time up until that point.
On the Wednesday before mother‘s day, Finn takes him roller skating, because he knows that Kurt is actually good at skating. It’s a shame Finn is not, and they spend more time on the ground then they do upright, because every time Finn goes down he reaches out to steady himself and his bulk drags Kurt down too. However, Kurt laughs, and Finn considers it a win, even if they are both covered in bruises the next day.
On the Thursday before mother‘s day, Rachel invites him to see the new musical with her at the local theater. It’s absolutely awful, and it’s a little painful to watch, but worst of all, it’s all about someone’s crazy mother. Rachel feels like a heel for not reading the description better, but Kurt for the most part doesn’t seem to mind. Only until the big musical number and his face scrunches up like he’s in pain, but that‘s more because it‘s simply awful than anything else. Later they both agree not to watch any more musicals at the Lima playhouse.
On the Friday before mother‘s day, Artie takes him to this sci fi thing a few towns over, and Kurt is a little freaked out by the rampant crazy fan freak-outs that are going on. Artie seems to be having the time of his life however, and Kurt has to admit, that alone makes it well worth the trip. He enjoys seeing Artie like this, not so self-conscious like he is at school, worrying about whom is going to make fun of him next. Several people greet him by name. Kurt just goes along for the ride, but has to admit, it was kind of fun, in its own way.
On the Saturday before mother‘s day, Tina takes him to this paint war place, that makes him wear a horrifically ugly jumpsuit and safety goggles. However, he’s glad for the crime against fashion once he’s covered in paint and Tina is laughing hysterically. He’s never really heard Tina laugh so freely before, and he can’t help but smile. He‘ll be washing paint out of his hair for days, but he thinks it was worth it, he did have fun.
On Mother’s day, for some strange reason Noah Puckerman shows up on his doorstep. Kurt had long since figured out what the others were doing, trying to ease the stress of mother’s day for him. He figured it out when Santana and Brittany had taken him out actually, but he was touched by their thoughtfulness and didn’t want to burst their bubble by letting them know. So he just watches Puck a little warily, because he is a little surprised to see him there.
“Hello Puck.” He greets, and Puck nods shortly before he sits down on the bench seat of the porch and Kurt sits on the swing. They’re silent for several moments before Puck starts talking.
“There’s a club, it’s the missing parents club and you’re not in it until you’re in it, and I’m just…really sorry that you’re in it.” And he says it so genuinely, that Kurt believes him.
“I’m sorry you are too.” Kurt says and Puck nods in response. “Would you like to come in?”
“Sure.” And that’s how Kurt Hummel found himself spending Mother’s Day with the last person he ever expected to. Still, it was better than spending it alone.
That particular mother’s day would live in his mind as the best one he’d had since his mother had died, because he knew, really knew, that his friends cared, and that made it easier to bear.