Glee Fic Update: The Bruise of a Rough Start, Kurt/Blaine, Sam/Mercedes, R, 3/8 (+epilogue)
Title: The Bruise of a Rough Start
Artist: bluefire986
Author: hildigunnur
Rating (art/fic if different): G/R
Warnings (apply for the entire fic): multiple mentions of past childhood sexual abuse, mentions of sex work (Sam's stripping)
Fic Summary: AU. Kurt Hummel and Mercedes Jones might have thought that senior year at McKinley would pretty much the same as the other three years. But when Sam Evans returns to McKinley with his new friend, the motorcycle-riding, seemingly free-spirited Blaine Anderson, things get turned around.
Chapter 3 on AO3
Author's Notes: My thanks to sarka for the beta. Remaining errors are all mine.
Title is from Adam Lambert's song - The Light.
Hopefully I'll manage to post the next chapter in a week or so.
Sam had never had a friend like Blaine before. Someone who was his friend, not because they play sports together, but because they clicked and had each other’s trust pretty much from the get-go.
So he was happy that Blaine had hit it off with Kurt and that Kurt was looking a little less lonely because of it. But Blaine wasn’t fitting in so much with the rest of his friends, the guys in particular.
At every meeting of the Glee club, Finn had talked about how people had to earn their place in Glee club and prove their merit. Sometimes it was like he was the president, giving a speech. Some kids would roll their eyes but Puck and Artie had been rather enthusiastic supporters of what Finn was saying. Blaine was never directly mentioned but it was heavily implied that Finn felt Blaine didn’t belong.
Sam was already feeling a little bit blue as he entered the choir room. He’d been watching Mercedes and Shane throughout the lunch break. He had liked other girls before, hell, last year he’d been ready to promise Quinn everything, but now all he could see was Mercedes.What he felt for her was so much stronger than anything he’d felt for Quinn, or for any other girl, for that matter.
Blaine was already there with Kurt and they were sitting together, their body language suggesting that all they cared about was each other. The other kids trickled in and Sam looked at Mercedes as she took a seat next to Tina.
“Hey, how is everyone?” Mr. Schue walked into the class, looking a little more excited than usually.
Most people mumbled something as Mr. Schue pulled out a paper from the stack he was carrying.
“So, I’ve secured us the rights for the musical we’re going to put on this year. Finn, drumroll, please.”
Finn jumped towards the drum set and produced a drumroll.
“This year we’ll be doing West Side Story!”
A very loud shriek could be heard coming from Rachel and some of the other kids seemed excited. Sam was pretty excited as well, this was actually a musical he’d heard about and he’d seen the movie made after it, unlike A Chorus Line and Wicked, some of the musical titles that were often thrown about in the choir room.
“While I’m hoping that Coach Beiste and Artie might help out with directing, I thought I should make casting suggestions, especially since Finn has already told me he doesn’t want to take the lead this year, which I think is wise, considering all the dancing. So I was thinking that we would double cast Tony and Maria.”
“Mr. Schue,” Rachel started, sounding very offended.
“Now, now, Rachel, of course I’m suggesting you as Maria but since I’m thinking of Sam and Mike as Tony, it would be great to change it up with Maria as well, and for Mercedes to share the role with you.”
A murmur went through the class but Sam could feel butterflies in his stomach at the thought of doing a romantic role opposite Mercedes.
“Kurt, I’m thinking of you as Riff. Kind of amusing since you were Riff Raff in Rocky Horror last year. Blaine as Bernardo, Santana as Anita and Puck as Officer Krupke, I think you’d know more about police work than any of us.”
“Hold up,” Finn said. “Isn’t Bernardo like, a rather big role? I mean, why are you suggesting the newbie here gets such a big role but someone like Puck gets a role with like, no singing?”
Sam blinked. Puck had a nice voice and all but Blaine’s was better and probably more suited for a musical. Looks-wise they were equally suited to play the Puerto-Rican Bernardo, though neither of them was of Latin descent.
As much as Mr. Schue normally listened to what Finn had to say, he didn’t seem to have much patience for him at the moment.
“Thank you, Finn. We discuss this later.”
One of the many things that Blaine had learned in therapy was to try to confront things that frustrated and angered him early on, before he let them fester. This was something he did believe in, because he never wanted to experience the anger he’d felt after being attacked for being gay at his old high school. What he felt then was something he never wanted to experience again; feeling so defenseless and useless, really , knowing that his attackers weren’t going to get punished and were probably feeling victorious, having managed to drive him away from the school. He wasn’t about to get pushed away from another thing he wanted again.
As the other kids were standing to leave the Glee club meeting that was now over, Blaine asked Finn to stay. Kurt lingered as well and Blaine just knew that he had to feel a little torn.
“What is your problem with me?” Blaine asked Finn as Rachel marched Mercedes out of the classroom, talking about how sharing a role was common-place on Broadway and how they would have to talk this over so they’d have a similar vision.
Finn was quick to pull himself up to his full height, and there had been a time when Blaine would have felt intimidated by that, but now he merely crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Finn’s answer.
“I… you just started out in Glee club. This is the third year for some of us and it’s unfair that somehow you come waltzing in and just get to be the star.”
“Really, Finn?” Kurt injected. “You are worried about Blaine stealing the limelight? So who is the only one who has gotten solos at competitions? Who are the only two people who have sung duets at competitions?”
Finn frowned.
“Mr. Schue decided on the solos Rachel had sung and our duets as well and…”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it Mr. Schue’s suggestion that I’d get the role?” Blaine said, quirking an eyebrow.
That fact was obviously dawning on Finn and a sheepish look appeared on his face.
“Yeah, it’s just… we’ve had bad experiences with the newcomers. Kurt, you know, like Jesse.”
“And what about Sam then?”
“I… that’s… he plays football?” Finn said, not looking Blaine and Kurt in the eye, instead staring intently at his Chucks.
“Seriously, Finn?” Kurt exclaimed and Blaine couldn’t help but snort.
“So a varsity jacket makes a person trustworthy? Is that the reason your stepbrother is constantly terrorized by the other jocks and you just stand by and do nothing?”
“That’s…” Finn looked panicked. “We do watch out for him… I just… we have to play with those guys on the team and Kurt knows…”
Blaine felt Kurt’s hand on his upper arm, like Kurt didn’t want him to keep ripping Finn a new one.
“It’s okay, we’ve talked about this, and yeah, it’s not nearly as bad as it was last year and you guys helped so much. It’s just, Blaine witnessed the bullying a bit, so yeah…”
“Shit, who? Do you want me to talk to them? Have you told Burt?”
Kurt sighed, his hand still on Blaine’s upper arm.
“We don’t have any more proof than we did last year, Finn. I’ll just have to grin and bear it for a few months more and then I’ll hopefully never see those guys again. But seriously, though, you owe Blaine a better explanation.”
“He’s so freaking talented.” It came out as a whisper but Blaine caught what Finn was saying.
“Care to repeat that?” Kurt asked.
“He’s so talented, okay,“ Finn said. “It feels like when Jesse joined. Why should I even try to open my mouth to sing near him?”
“‘Cause it’s a show choir, silly,” Kurt said, the affection for his brother obvious in his voice. “We need more than one voice, despite what Rachel might sometimes think.”
Kurt wasn’t entirely sure whether Finn was over his thing with Blaine, but at least he now knew that he’d been unfair and frankly rude to him.
After Finn left, Kurt and Blaine lingered around for a while, since Kurt thought it would be prudent to let Finn have time to think a little, by himself at home, before Kurt would be home. Kurt wasn’t really angry with his step-brother but it did bother him that he wasn’t welcoming to Blaine. While Blaine had a tattoo, wore a leather jacket, and rode a motorcycle, Glee club shouldn’t be a place where he got judged for that.
They were just wandering the hallways, Kurt telling Blaine about classrooms he hadn’t been to and reminiscing about the club’s first performance at the school assembly.
“Seriously? You sang Push It?”
Kurt nodded.
“Yeah, that wasn’t the half of it. Rachel’s inspiration for the choreography must’ve come from a porno or something, at least judging from the way she was humping Finn. But I can’t blame her entirely; I got totally into it, and I was crawling on stage like I was Mercedes’ pet and doing some crazy hip thrusting and yeah, slapping Finn’s butt.”
“Really? I would’ve loved to have seen that,” Blaine said, grinning, pulling on the lapel of the jacket Kurt was wearing.
“Well, if you love secondhand embarrassment, then you would have been all over it.”
Blaine laughed and Kurt’s stomach felt pleasantly warm; he was realizing that this was how it felt to like someone who could possibly like you back.
Kurt was so engrossed in Blaine’s reactions to his little tales, he didn’t realize they were no longer alone in the hallway.
“What the hell are you two doing here?”
Karofsky was standing there, looking irritated that he and Blaine dared to exist. Kurt looked at Blaine who quirked his eyebrow, giving him a ‘can you believe this guy?’ look.
“Being students here,” was all Kurt offered.
“Well, you should limit your fairy-dust spreading to actual school hours, then, instead of trying to ruin it for those of us who participate in proper after-school activities, not Homo Explosion,” Karofsky said, his mouth stretched and his nostrils flared in a sneer.
“Whoa, I can’t believe you, dude,” Blaine said in a raised voice, taking a step forward. “I’ve seen you at Scandals, fucking participating in a line dance with a bunch of other bears.”
Karofsky’s face turned a shade of red that Kurt wanted to call puce, or even burgundy since it was way past being red and was instead clearly heading into the territory of being dark purple. His knuckles, on the other hand, were white and Karofsky seemed likely to want to introduce Blaine’s handsome face to them.
“You….” Karofsky stuttered.
“I’m not going to out you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I mean, you obviously have a lot of anger stored up and it can be so hard to come out but I mean, if you want, I’m willing to support you, though I can’t speak for Kurt…” Blaine was rambling but it seemed to agitate Karofsky even more.
“Just keep your mouth shut,” he growled, pushing Blaine to walk past him. Kurt couldn’t stand by anymore.
“Jeez, you’ve got to stop,” he said as he stepped in front of Karofsky, his heart beating hard.
“Get away from me.”
“I’m not even going to touch you, Dave. I’m just going to ask you to please stop. Stop shoving me and calling me names. Taking your self-hatred out on me isn’t going to help. Perhaps it helps you keeping up appearances in high school but we only have a few months left and what the fuck are you going to do when you get to college? Keep on hating yourself or what?” He didn’t even know where the words were coming from or why he hadn’t spoken up like this before, but even though Karofsky was starting to resemble a cartoon bomb about to go off, Kurt felt oddly free.
“I… I can’t do this.” Karofsky shoved past him, sprinting down the hallway to the nearest exit.
“I don’t think he’s coming out anytime soon,” Blaine said, putting his arm around Kurt’s shoulders, patting them softly and sliding his hand down the upper arm.
“Yeah, I just hope I didn’t make things worse.”
“Well, let’s not allow that to happen.” Blaine gave him a look that Kurt couldn’t misconstrue. It was strangely thrilling to have someone willing to get into a fight for you.
Walking out of the school, Blaine followed Kurt to his car.
“I was wondering whether we should go on another date?” Blaine looked up through his eyelashes like he was trying to be bashful.
“I’d like that very much,” Kurt said. They hadn’t gone on another date since going to the Lima Bean the other day but they had pretty much stayed glued to each other’s side at school and even talked on the phone once or twice.
“This weekend? You free on Saturday night?”
Kurt nodded, leaning against his car and trying not to stare at Blaine’s face; at his pretty eyes and lovely mouth that Kurt wanted so much to kiss.
“We’ll talk tomorrow, alright?” Blaine said as he started to turn away and towards his bike.
“No, wait.” Kurt threw his arm out to grab Blaine’s hand. Then he looked around quickly to see if there was anyone else in the parking lot. Pulling a bit harder, he made Blaine almost fall into him. There was a look of confusion in Blaine’s eyes, along with something warm and Kurt acted on his impulse. Tilting his head a little, he caught Blaine’s mouth with his lips, giving him what he hoped to be a decent kiss. At least it felt pretty decent to Kurt, Blaine’s lips feeling so right. And Blaine got into the kiss, giving back as good as he got, his hand coming up to grasp at Kurt’s shoulder.
After a moment, they broke apart, Kurt’s lips feeling pleasantly tingly.
“Damn, I was waiting for the right moment and you just couldn’t wait?” Blaine said, laughter obviously bubbling in his voice.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” was all Kurt could say before pulling him into another kiss.
Chapter 4
Artist: bluefire986
Author: hildigunnur
Rating (art/fic if different): G/R
Warnings (apply for the entire fic): multiple mentions of past childhood sexual abuse, mentions of sex work (Sam's stripping)
Fic Summary: AU. Kurt Hummel and Mercedes Jones might have thought that senior year at McKinley would pretty much the same as the other three years. But when Sam Evans returns to McKinley with his new friend, the motorcycle-riding, seemingly free-spirited Blaine Anderson, things get turned around.
Chapter 3 on AO3
Author's Notes: My thanks to sarka for the beta. Remaining errors are all mine.
Title is from Adam Lambert's song - The Light.
Hopefully I'll manage to post the next chapter in a week or so.
Sam had never had a friend like Blaine before. Someone who was his friend, not because they play sports together, but because they clicked and had each other’s trust pretty much from the get-go.
So he was happy that Blaine had hit it off with Kurt and that Kurt was looking a little less lonely because of it. But Blaine wasn’t fitting in so much with the rest of his friends, the guys in particular.
At every meeting of the Glee club, Finn had talked about how people had to earn their place in Glee club and prove their merit. Sometimes it was like he was the president, giving a speech. Some kids would roll their eyes but Puck and Artie had been rather enthusiastic supporters of what Finn was saying. Blaine was never directly mentioned but it was heavily implied that Finn felt Blaine didn’t belong.
Sam was already feeling a little bit blue as he entered the choir room. He’d been watching Mercedes and Shane throughout the lunch break. He had liked other girls before, hell, last year he’d been ready to promise Quinn everything, but now all he could see was Mercedes.What he felt for her was so much stronger than anything he’d felt for Quinn, or for any other girl, for that matter.
Blaine was already there with Kurt and they were sitting together, their body language suggesting that all they cared about was each other. The other kids trickled in and Sam looked at Mercedes as she took a seat next to Tina.
“Hey, how is everyone?” Mr. Schue walked into the class, looking a little more excited than usually.
Most people mumbled something as Mr. Schue pulled out a paper from the stack he was carrying.
“So, I’ve secured us the rights for the musical we’re going to put on this year. Finn, drumroll, please.”
Finn jumped towards the drum set and produced a drumroll.
“This year we’ll be doing West Side Story!”
A very loud shriek could be heard coming from Rachel and some of the other kids seemed excited. Sam was pretty excited as well, this was actually a musical he’d heard about and he’d seen the movie made after it, unlike A Chorus Line and Wicked, some of the musical titles that were often thrown about in the choir room.
“While I’m hoping that Coach Beiste and Artie might help out with directing, I thought I should make casting suggestions, especially since Finn has already told me he doesn’t want to take the lead this year, which I think is wise, considering all the dancing. So I was thinking that we would double cast Tony and Maria.”
“Mr. Schue,” Rachel started, sounding very offended.
“Now, now, Rachel, of course I’m suggesting you as Maria but since I’m thinking of Sam and Mike as Tony, it would be great to change it up with Maria as well, and for Mercedes to share the role with you.”
A murmur went through the class but Sam could feel butterflies in his stomach at the thought of doing a romantic role opposite Mercedes.
“Kurt, I’m thinking of you as Riff. Kind of amusing since you were Riff Raff in Rocky Horror last year. Blaine as Bernardo, Santana as Anita and Puck as Officer Krupke, I think you’d know more about police work than any of us.”
“Hold up,” Finn said. “Isn’t Bernardo like, a rather big role? I mean, why are you suggesting the newbie here gets such a big role but someone like Puck gets a role with like, no singing?”
Sam blinked. Puck had a nice voice and all but Blaine’s was better and probably more suited for a musical. Looks-wise they were equally suited to play the Puerto-Rican Bernardo, though neither of them was of Latin descent.
As much as Mr. Schue normally listened to what Finn had to say, he didn’t seem to have much patience for him at the moment.
“Thank you, Finn. We discuss this later.”
One of the many things that Blaine had learned in therapy was to try to confront things that frustrated and angered him early on, before he let them fester. This was something he did believe in, because he never wanted to experience the anger he’d felt after being attacked for being gay at his old high school. What he felt then was something he never wanted to experience again; feeling so defenseless and useless, really , knowing that his attackers weren’t going to get punished and were probably feeling victorious, having managed to drive him away from the school. He wasn’t about to get pushed away from another thing he wanted again.
As the other kids were standing to leave the Glee club meeting that was now over, Blaine asked Finn to stay. Kurt lingered as well and Blaine just knew that he had to feel a little torn.
“What is your problem with me?” Blaine asked Finn as Rachel marched Mercedes out of the classroom, talking about how sharing a role was common-place on Broadway and how they would have to talk this over so they’d have a similar vision.
Finn was quick to pull himself up to his full height, and there had been a time when Blaine would have felt intimidated by that, but now he merely crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Finn’s answer.
“I… you just started out in Glee club. This is the third year for some of us and it’s unfair that somehow you come waltzing in and just get to be the star.”
“Really, Finn?” Kurt injected. “You are worried about Blaine stealing the limelight? So who is the only one who has gotten solos at competitions? Who are the only two people who have sung duets at competitions?”
Finn frowned.
“Mr. Schue decided on the solos Rachel had sung and our duets as well and…”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it Mr. Schue’s suggestion that I’d get the role?” Blaine said, quirking an eyebrow.
That fact was obviously dawning on Finn and a sheepish look appeared on his face.
“Yeah, it’s just… we’ve had bad experiences with the newcomers. Kurt, you know, like Jesse.”
“And what about Sam then?”
“I… that’s… he plays football?” Finn said, not looking Blaine and Kurt in the eye, instead staring intently at his Chucks.
“Seriously, Finn?” Kurt exclaimed and Blaine couldn’t help but snort.
“So a varsity jacket makes a person trustworthy? Is that the reason your stepbrother is constantly terrorized by the other jocks and you just stand by and do nothing?”
“That’s…” Finn looked panicked. “We do watch out for him… I just… we have to play with those guys on the team and Kurt knows…”
Blaine felt Kurt’s hand on his upper arm, like Kurt didn’t want him to keep ripping Finn a new one.
“It’s okay, we’ve talked about this, and yeah, it’s not nearly as bad as it was last year and you guys helped so much. It’s just, Blaine witnessed the bullying a bit, so yeah…”
“Shit, who? Do you want me to talk to them? Have you told Burt?”
Kurt sighed, his hand still on Blaine’s upper arm.
“We don’t have any more proof than we did last year, Finn. I’ll just have to grin and bear it for a few months more and then I’ll hopefully never see those guys again. But seriously, though, you owe Blaine a better explanation.”
“He’s so freaking talented.” It came out as a whisper but Blaine caught what Finn was saying.
“Care to repeat that?” Kurt asked.
“He’s so talented, okay,“ Finn said. “It feels like when Jesse joined. Why should I even try to open my mouth to sing near him?”
“‘Cause it’s a show choir, silly,” Kurt said, the affection for his brother obvious in his voice. “We need more than one voice, despite what Rachel might sometimes think.”
Kurt wasn’t entirely sure whether Finn was over his thing with Blaine, but at least he now knew that he’d been unfair and frankly rude to him.
After Finn left, Kurt and Blaine lingered around for a while, since Kurt thought it would be prudent to let Finn have time to think a little, by himself at home, before Kurt would be home. Kurt wasn’t really angry with his step-brother but it did bother him that he wasn’t welcoming to Blaine. While Blaine had a tattoo, wore a leather jacket, and rode a motorcycle, Glee club shouldn’t be a place where he got judged for that.
They were just wandering the hallways, Kurt telling Blaine about classrooms he hadn’t been to and reminiscing about the club’s first performance at the school assembly.
“Seriously? You sang Push It?”
Kurt nodded.
“Yeah, that wasn’t the half of it. Rachel’s inspiration for the choreography must’ve come from a porno or something, at least judging from the way she was humping Finn. But I can’t blame her entirely; I got totally into it, and I was crawling on stage like I was Mercedes’ pet and doing some crazy hip thrusting and yeah, slapping Finn’s butt.”
“Really? I would’ve loved to have seen that,” Blaine said, grinning, pulling on the lapel of the jacket Kurt was wearing.
“Well, if you love secondhand embarrassment, then you would have been all over it.”
Blaine laughed and Kurt’s stomach felt pleasantly warm; he was realizing that this was how it felt to like someone who could possibly like you back.
Kurt was so engrossed in Blaine’s reactions to his little tales, he didn’t realize they were no longer alone in the hallway.
“What the hell are you two doing here?”
Karofsky was standing there, looking irritated that he and Blaine dared to exist. Kurt looked at Blaine who quirked his eyebrow, giving him a ‘can you believe this guy?’ look.
“Being students here,” was all Kurt offered.
“Well, you should limit your fairy-dust spreading to actual school hours, then, instead of trying to ruin it for those of us who participate in proper after-school activities, not Homo Explosion,” Karofsky said, his mouth stretched and his nostrils flared in a sneer.
“Whoa, I can’t believe you, dude,” Blaine said in a raised voice, taking a step forward. “I’ve seen you at Scandals, fucking participating in a line dance with a bunch of other bears.”
Karofsky’s face turned a shade of red that Kurt wanted to call puce, or even burgundy since it was way past being red and was instead clearly heading into the territory of being dark purple. His knuckles, on the other hand, were white and Karofsky seemed likely to want to introduce Blaine’s handsome face to them.
“You….” Karofsky stuttered.
“I’m not going to out you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I mean, you obviously have a lot of anger stored up and it can be so hard to come out but I mean, if you want, I’m willing to support you, though I can’t speak for Kurt…” Blaine was rambling but it seemed to agitate Karofsky even more.
“Just keep your mouth shut,” he growled, pushing Blaine to walk past him. Kurt couldn’t stand by anymore.
“Jeez, you’ve got to stop,” he said as he stepped in front of Karofsky, his heart beating hard.
“Get away from me.”
“I’m not even going to touch you, Dave. I’m just going to ask you to please stop. Stop shoving me and calling me names. Taking your self-hatred out on me isn’t going to help. Perhaps it helps you keeping up appearances in high school but we only have a few months left and what the fuck are you going to do when you get to college? Keep on hating yourself or what?” He didn’t even know where the words were coming from or why he hadn’t spoken up like this before, but even though Karofsky was starting to resemble a cartoon bomb about to go off, Kurt felt oddly free.
“I… I can’t do this.” Karofsky shoved past him, sprinting down the hallway to the nearest exit.
“I don’t think he’s coming out anytime soon,” Blaine said, putting his arm around Kurt’s shoulders, patting them softly and sliding his hand down the upper arm.
“Yeah, I just hope I didn’t make things worse.”
“Well, let’s not allow that to happen.” Blaine gave him a look that Kurt couldn’t misconstrue. It was strangely thrilling to have someone willing to get into a fight for you.
Walking out of the school, Blaine followed Kurt to his car.
“I was wondering whether we should go on another date?” Blaine looked up through his eyelashes like he was trying to be bashful.
“I’d like that very much,” Kurt said. They hadn’t gone on another date since going to the Lima Bean the other day but they had pretty much stayed glued to each other’s side at school and even talked on the phone once or twice.
“This weekend? You free on Saturday night?”
Kurt nodded, leaning against his car and trying not to stare at Blaine’s face; at his pretty eyes and lovely mouth that Kurt wanted so much to kiss.
“We’ll talk tomorrow, alright?” Blaine said as he started to turn away and towards his bike.
“No, wait.” Kurt threw his arm out to grab Blaine’s hand. Then he looked around quickly to see if there was anyone else in the parking lot. Pulling a bit harder, he made Blaine almost fall into him. There was a look of confusion in Blaine’s eyes, along with something warm and Kurt acted on his impulse. Tilting his head a little, he caught Blaine’s mouth with his lips, giving him what he hoped to be a decent kiss. At least it felt pretty decent to Kurt, Blaine’s lips feeling so right. And Blaine got into the kiss, giving back as good as he got, his hand coming up to grasp at Kurt’s shoulder.
After a moment, they broke apart, Kurt’s lips feeling pleasantly tingly.
“Damn, I was waiting for the right moment and you just couldn’t wait?” Blaine said, laughter obviously bubbling in his voice.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” was all Kurt could say before pulling him into another kiss.
Chapter 4