Ivory & Gold. Part II
Title: Ivory & Gold
Author: vivid_butterfly
Rating: R
Series: Glee
Characters/Pairings: Dave Karofsky, Kurt Hummel, Karofsky/Kurt
Summary: We are not who we were in high school, but that doesn't always change anything. An AU in which Dave never came back to WMHS after being expelled.
Response to this prompt on glee_kink_meme,
Dave wakes way too early the next morning so he goes for a jog. The streets are peaceful and dark. He's always liked it best when the paths are empty and coated in soft fog. Back in high school sometimes he used to imagine he was the protagonist in a horror film; it didn't make for particularly peaceful runs, but it did keep him from getting bored.
It’s only seven thirty when he comes back so Dave takes a shower and then heads to the living room where he reconnects his dust covered XBOX and plays Halo for three hours. He keeps glancing at the clock urging it to speed up so he can leave to get his car.
He has this hope, irrational and fluttering around the edges of his stomach, that Kurt will be there. He tells himself he won’t be the entire walk to the garage, but when he arrives and is greeted by Burt Hummel who hands him the write up about what was done to his car he still can’t stop himself from glancing around the garage or feeling a little disappointed when he doesn’t find him. Burt hasn’t seemed to have figured out that Dave is that Dave from the principal’s office, and Dave is very grateful for that. He isn't sure what he would do if he recognized him.
Burt directs to an area to pay and get his key back; a tall dark-haired guy around his age is behind the counter reading a magazine.
“Hudson?” Dave asks in disbelief.
The man lifts up his head, yep, that is definitely Finn Hudson.
“Karofsky?”
“I almost forgot Mr. Hummel is your stepdad,” Dave offers as explanation as he moves to the counter. He remembers watching Kurt and Finn practicing dancing in the choir room and the strange pang of jealously that had coursed through him.
“Yeah, I help him out in the garage on breaks. Winter, Summer, Spring.”
Dave nods and hands the credit card to Finn who swipes it.
“You and Berry still together?”Dave asks as polite filler; he hasn’t heard much in the way of Lima news since he left for college. He’s spent the last few summers at training camps or taking classes.
“No. We broke up a while ago. She went to New York and I’m at Ohio State. It was too hard.”
“Oh, sucks man.”
“S’alright, She’s got some part on Broadway about sex crazed teenagers in Germany or something, so she’s happy. We still talk sometimes. Well, she still talks at me sometimes. Some of the Glee Club is back this weekend so we’re all going to go get dinner on Friday.”
Dave nods like he is commiserating and understands what if feels like to have a talkative exgirlfriend, which is actually kind of the opposite of what he has: a taciturn one night stand.
“I met a girl at Ohio State and we’ve been dating for a while. She isn’t totally crazy, so that’s pretty cool.”
Finn hands him a pen and the receipt and Dave signs it. As he exchanges the signed receipt and pen for his card and key he says clearly, “I’m sorry I was such a dick to you. Back in high school.”
Finn looks started and then his expression settles in to something that looks like cautious optimism.
“I’m sorry I made fun of you in fifth grade,” Finn responds, “about getting pubes, I mean.”
Dave nods and puts his card in his wallet and attaches his car key to his keychain.
“Good luck with school, Finn”
Finn nods back, “You too, man.”
The actual day Thanksgiving is pretty uneventful. He helps set the table and his mother cooks a delicious meal and he and his family gather around and eat it.
The dinner table carefully avoids politics and the conversation is mostly inane chatter. Dave is asked about school so he mentions he's majoring in English and a scout from either the Rangers an/or the Penguins is rumored to be showing up at their game in two weeks. He helps clear away the dishes and load them in the washer when the time comes.
After the meal he plays XBOX live with his younger cousin, who has just turned fourteen and swears like a goddamn sailor, and eats pie. When the kid starts calling the other players cocksuckers and fags over the headset Dave punches him in the arm, and he doesn’t even have to stop shooting Nazis to do it.
It's with a small sense of pleasure that Dave notes his cousin screams like a little girl.
“Watch your mouth,” Dave growls.
“But you used to-” he protests weakly before trailing off when he sees the angry look on Dave's face.
“I don’t anymore,” he says which is kind of a lie because he still does sometimes during particularly heated matches, but mostly he just tells the opposing team to suck his cock which technically isn’t homophobic, right? Whether it is or not, he’s still sure Kurt would still roll his eyes at it and look haughty and indignant.
Later that night after his relatives have left Dave flicks through the phonebook and finds the entry for Hummel, Burt and Carole. He takes his cellphone and carefully enters the number before hitting send and placing the phone against his ear as he walks in to his room and shuts the door.
On the third ring familiar voices answers it with a ‘Hello?’
“Kurt?”
“Yes, who is calling?”
“I still have your scarf,” Dave blurts out like an idiot.
“Karofsky?”
He had been running over what to say for ages, but it's all escaped him and he can barely form words now.
“Yeah,. I... I still have your scarf I thought maybe you’d want it back.”
There is a moment of silence that seems palpable to Dave over the phone.
“It’s the one that’s purple and red,” he offers, “I could drop it by your house if you wanted. Or I could give it back in Boston. I heard you were in Lima this weekend so I thought-”
“What do you want?”
Dave’s mouth opens, but he doesn’t say anything for a good thirty seconds.
“Dinner,” Dave finally replies, “or maybe just drinks. Coffee, even. Whatever you want. I thought maybe we could hang out. Together.”
“Breadstix,” Kurt says, “Eight o’clock tomorrow.”
Dave nods, realizes Kurt can’t see him nodding and says, “Awesome. Sounds great. See you then.”
He doesn't get any more response than a dial tone because Kurt has already hung up.
As dumb as he feels doing it, Dave spends nearly two hours getting ready. The first hour consists of him showering and shaving off the two days worth of stubble on his face. Then he goes to his room after he has dried off and puts on deodorant; he changes in to a pair if his khakis and pulls on a polo shirt. The shirt doesn't look right though so he pulls it off and tosses it on the floor. He opens the closet doors and looks through his shirts before pulling out a long sleeved button up shirt; he thinks it was a gift from an aunt a few birthdays ago. He grabs a tie and ties it; after looking at himself in the mirror he feels like it is way too much, loosens it, pulls it off , and tosses it on the floor. He takes off the khakis and changes in to a pair of dark jeans. The shirt still looks wrong, so he unbuttons it and tosses it on the floor with the others.
He stops, lets out a groan, and rubs his face feeling like an idiot the entire time. He takes a deep breath as he sits down on the edge of his bed and looks down at his bare feet on the off-white carpet of his room. He sits like that for a few minutes before he stands up and pulls on a red short-sleeved shirt from out of his bag and lies back down on the bed and stares up at the ceiling.
He can see the outline of glow-in-the-dark stars on the white plaster and it makes the edges of his lips twitch in to something almost like a smile. When he finally sits back up he gets off the bed and heads to his dresser. He pulls out the sweater on top of the pile of clothing, neatly folded by his mother and slides it on.
“Okay,” Dave says to himself, “Stop acting like a fucking girl.” Saying this doesn’t stop him from tugging at the sleeves of his gray-striped sweater and thinking about changing, but it does stop him from actually changing. The weather application on his phone tells him it’s forty degrees outside, so he slides on the red zip-up college sweatshirt and grabs his peacoat from out of the closet. He brings a pair of socks with him to the front door where he kicked off his shoes last.
“Where are you headed to?” his father asks him, eying him from where he stands in the kitchen doorway.
“Meeting up with some friends for dinner,” he replies as he slips on his shoes without untying them.
“Okay, have fun. But if you drink too much-”
“I know, call a cab, call you, or crash at a friend’s house. I’m almost twenty two, Dad.”
His dad nods, but says nothing in response.
He shows up at Breadstix at seven fifty five, hands shoved in his coat’s pockets so that they have something to do. Kurt’s scarf is draped loosely over his shoulders because he doesn’t know what else to do with it before he can give it back to him. The colors probably clash with what he is wearing, but Dave can’t bring himself to care about that and he hopes he never will.
He stands outside the restaurant for a good thirty seconds before mumbling, “Right. You can do this,” to himself and walking in.
It is warm enough inside that he unbuttons his coat and slides off the scarf so it’s being held in his left hand.
He spots Kurt standing near a table and starts walking towards him; he is a little too busy staring at the way Kurt’s lithe body looks in his pinstripe gray slacks and tight blue sweater to wonder why Kurt is near such a large table until he’s close enough to touch him.
That is when he glances out of the corner of his eye and sees it. Chang is sitting there next to Finn and Sam. Along with what Dave can only guess is every other freaking member of that stupid Glee club.
“Here,” Dave grumbles, shoving the scarf in Kurt’s hand before turning and walking away, his face burning.
Part Three.