Fic: Day of Silence, Jesse
Prompt: Kurt gets the Glee club to participate [in Day of Silence]. Day of Silence, for those unaware, students going all day without speaking to memoralize/draw attention to others in the past who have been bullied, judged for their sexuality, or generally never had their voices heard. Would love to see how the gleekers are affected by the experience.
Genre: Friendship/fluff
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Enjoy!
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Jesse wasn't a bad guy.
He'd been trying to convince the rest of New Directions that he wasn't a bad guy since he first met Rachel in the music store. He knew they had every right not to trust him. He had been Vocal Adrenaline's star, and stars don't give up their power for nothing. They obviously didn't understand what true love was, or they just didn't like Rachel very much.
In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best of cover stories. It made him look like a sleaze ball who wanted to get into Rachel Berry's pants.
So it was no surprise that New Directions didn't take his coming to McKinley lightly. But he liked a challenge, and if that challenge was getting the rest of the club to like him, then so be it. Jesse was always up for a challenge.
He asked Mike to help him fine-tune his dance moves. He found one of the extra wheelchairs and asked Artie to teach him how to pop a wheelie. He let Puck beat him - sometimes - when they armwrestled. He carried Quinn's backpack for her and made sure to snag her an extra piece of cake at lunch. He always made sure to say hi to Finn, who had been looking a little lonely lately. He let Brittany kiss him so she could still have that perfect record she was always talking about. He made Kurt CDs of obscure showtunes. And he was the perfect boyfriend for Rachel.
After a while, he started to do those things automatically. It stopped being a way to earn their trust and turned into who he was. Jesse St. James, the boy who they could count on for anything.
Day of Silence was no different.
Jesse was no stranger to this type of thing. Admittedly he had never participated in Day of Silence before, but he was all for that equality thing and did what he could to show it. A couple of his friends in Vocal Adrenaline were gay, and Jesse made sure they knew that he supported them one hundred percent. He was going to do the same for Kurt, and not just because Mr. Schuester told them to.
Rachel called him up the night before, telling him to wear a white T-shirt to school the next day. She told him that she had a NOH8 tattoo for him and that they should go all out and make it look like they were going to one of those photoshoots. Jesse googled it later because he had no idea what she was talking about.
So he turned up the next day in a white T-shirt and a perfectly scrubbed cheek for his tattoo. Rachel put it on for him in the middle of the hallway, grinning at him in her matching T-shirt and tattoo. Then she pulled out the duct tape.
Jesse almost - keyword almost - said no. Putting duct tape over your mouth hurt. A lot. Rachel probably didn't know that because she'd probably never done it before. So Jesse took the duct tape from her and ripped off a piece, sticking and unsticking it to his jeans until he was satisfied it wasn't going to hurt as much. Then he carefully placed it over Rachel's mouth and ripped a piece off for himself too.
They must have been quite the spectacle, Jesse St. James and Rachel Berry, walking down the hallway with their arms linked in their white T-shirts and duct tape over their mouths. But they were Jesse St. James and Rachel Berry, so they could get away with it.
Eventually they had to go their separate ways. Since Jesse was a senior, he didn't have any classes with any of the New Directions kids. It was a little strange, not having class with his glee club, but he was slowly getting used to it. The senior class of McKinley seemed to like him too, and they accepted him a lot quicker than New Directions had, seeing how none of them even knew who he was.
People were staring, though, but he had expected that. A couple people asked what he was doing, but he just shook his head and sat down in his seat. Word would spread quickly - this was high school, after all - so he knew that before long the questioning stares would turn into disgusted glares. It was selfish and he knew it, but he was going to enjoy the confusion while he could.
Rachel texted him during third period.
Something happened to Kurt. Meet me in the choir room during free period. We are going to cheer him up.
He kind of loved how Rachel used proper grammar in all her texts. He also more than kind of loved that he had the same free period as Rachel and Kurt. Most of the time they went to the choir room and practiced their songs for glee, sometimes just singing whatever popped into their heads. It was fun and Kurt happily told them more than once that he never felt like a third wheel with them, even though they were "sickeningly adorable."
So Jesse went straight to the choir room, not even bothering to go to his normal classroom. He hoped that nothing serious had happened to Kurt. McKinley was not a very gay-friendly school, and while Carmal hadn't been perfect, it certainly was better.
Kurt was already there when he arrived, and the smaller boy was curled up in one of the chairs. Jesse could tell he had been crying. He went right over to Kurt, putting an arm around him and realized that duct tape sucked when you could only communicate through facial expressions.
Rachel came flying into the room not long after, a notebook tucked under her arm, a camera swinging wildly in one hand, and the roll of duct tape on her other wrist like a bracelet. She passed the notebook to Kurt, and Jesse read over his shoulder.
We're going to do a NOH8 photoshoot!
Oh Rachel, I love your crazy ideas even more than your grammar-correct texts. Sure, it wasn't going to fix things, but Kurt loved the camera and was a complete ham when he was in a good mood. So this was bound to cheer him up. Rachel tore off a piece of duct tape for Kurt and copied what Jesse had done that morning, sticking and unsticking it to her pants. (Because Rachel was, for once, wearing normal pants.) She handed the tape to Jesse, then bounded over to the table where Mr. Schue kept their sheet music, looking for something.
Jesse put the duct tape over Kurt's mouth, half expecting the other boy to tell him to keep it away from him because it would do something bad to his skin. If Kurt hadn't been so miserable, he probably would have, which reminded Jesse of the reality of the situation. This still wasn't Kurt sitting in front of him, and when Rachel came back with a red and black pen, obviously not having any more of the tattoos, Kurt didn't even flinch when she started to draw on his face.
But the pictures did cheer Kurt up a little. It was weird, taking pictures and not talking while they did it. Normally Rachel would be bossily telling Kurt to tilt his head this way and turn just a little bit that way. But after the first couple pictures Kurt started to loosen up, actually moving to accommodate the camera and not the other way around. And then Rachel gave Jesse a nudge and he went over so he was next to Kurt and Rachel started taking pictures of the two of them.
Jesse was glad he had googled NOH8 the night before, because otherwise he would have had no idea what to do, and that is saying something coming from him. At first he and Kurt didn't really do anything, just kept still while Rachel took their picture, but then Jesse decided to make things a little more fun.
First he went around to he was behind Kurt, putting an arm around him and pulling him close. He was being possessive-Jesse, and on any normal day Rachel would have made a funny comment about being over here and tapping her foot until he came over and hugged her. But today was different. Today Jesse was trying to have fun, trying to get Kurt to act more like Kurt.
After Rachel took a couple pictures of Jesse with an arm around Kurt, he came back out to stand next to the other boy. He turned him gently so they were facing each other, took one of Kurt's hands and lifted it so that his index finger was on his own mouth. Jesse put his finger on Kurt's mouth and he could tell that Kurt was starting to loosen up. Rachel took pictures of the pair of them like that, then Jesse just pulled Kurt into a boyish one-armed hug that was similar to a headlock.
A couple more pictures, then Jesse switched places with Rachel. He took pictures of her and Kurt, egging them on by nodding enthusiastically and smiling underneath his duct tape. After a couple minutes the two were trying to out-diva each other in their posing and Jesse was trying his best not to laugh.
Then Kurt surprised them both by taking the camera and waiting expectantly for them to pose together. So they did, Jesse setting his arms comfortably around Rachel's waist, then turning around and standing back to back, then pressing their duct-tape covered lips together in a faux kiss.
That gave Jesse an idea. He looked Rachel deep in the eyes, wordlessly telling her to trust him. Confusion met his gaze, but she nodded, so he motioned for Kurt to come back over and switch places with Rachel. They did so, both confused, neither one knowing what Jesse was about to do.
He thought it would have been obvious to both of them at this point, but hey, surprises were fun, so he turned so he was facing Kurt, putting an arm around the other's waist and pulling him close, pressing their duct-tape covered lips together in the same faux-kiss he and Rachel had just shared. It was a little weird, because Jesse wasn't interested in Kurt at all and his girlfriend was watching, but it was still nice. It wasn't even a real kiss; it was completely innocent and neither Rachel nor Kurt seemed to have any objections. It was just a pose for the camera.
And if he turned his head a little and took Kurt's hand and made the smaller boy put it on his neck, well, he was just making the pose more genuine.
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Intro | Artie | Brittany | Finn | Matt | Mercedes | Mike | Puck | Quinn | Rachel | Santana | Tina | Will | Kurt (1) (2)
Genre: Friendship/fluff
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: Not mine!
Enjoy!
------
Jesse wasn't a bad guy.
He'd been trying to convince the rest of New Directions that he wasn't a bad guy since he first met Rachel in the music store. He knew they had every right not to trust him. He had been Vocal Adrenaline's star, and stars don't give up their power for nothing. They obviously didn't understand what true love was, or they just didn't like Rachel very much.
In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best of cover stories. It made him look like a sleaze ball who wanted to get into Rachel Berry's pants.
So it was no surprise that New Directions didn't take his coming to McKinley lightly. But he liked a challenge, and if that challenge was getting the rest of the club to like him, then so be it. Jesse was always up for a challenge.
He asked Mike to help him fine-tune his dance moves. He found one of the extra wheelchairs and asked Artie to teach him how to pop a wheelie. He let Puck beat him - sometimes - when they armwrestled. He carried Quinn's backpack for her and made sure to snag her an extra piece of cake at lunch. He always made sure to say hi to Finn, who had been looking a little lonely lately. He let Brittany kiss him so she could still have that perfect record she was always talking about. He made Kurt CDs of obscure showtunes. And he was the perfect boyfriend for Rachel.
After a while, he started to do those things automatically. It stopped being a way to earn their trust and turned into who he was. Jesse St. James, the boy who they could count on for anything.
Day of Silence was no different.
Jesse was no stranger to this type of thing. Admittedly he had never participated in Day of Silence before, but he was all for that equality thing and did what he could to show it. A couple of his friends in Vocal Adrenaline were gay, and Jesse made sure they knew that he supported them one hundred percent. He was going to do the same for Kurt, and not just because Mr. Schuester told them to.
Rachel called him up the night before, telling him to wear a white T-shirt to school the next day. She told him that she had a NOH8 tattoo for him and that they should go all out and make it look like they were going to one of those photoshoots. Jesse googled it later because he had no idea what she was talking about.
So he turned up the next day in a white T-shirt and a perfectly scrubbed cheek for his tattoo. Rachel put it on for him in the middle of the hallway, grinning at him in her matching T-shirt and tattoo. Then she pulled out the duct tape.
Jesse almost - keyword almost - said no. Putting duct tape over your mouth hurt. A lot. Rachel probably didn't know that because she'd probably never done it before. So Jesse took the duct tape from her and ripped off a piece, sticking and unsticking it to his jeans until he was satisfied it wasn't going to hurt as much. Then he carefully placed it over Rachel's mouth and ripped a piece off for himself too.
They must have been quite the spectacle, Jesse St. James and Rachel Berry, walking down the hallway with their arms linked in their white T-shirts and duct tape over their mouths. But they were Jesse St. James and Rachel Berry, so they could get away with it.
Eventually they had to go their separate ways. Since Jesse was a senior, he didn't have any classes with any of the New Directions kids. It was a little strange, not having class with his glee club, but he was slowly getting used to it. The senior class of McKinley seemed to like him too, and they accepted him a lot quicker than New Directions had, seeing how none of them even knew who he was.
People were staring, though, but he had expected that. A couple people asked what he was doing, but he just shook his head and sat down in his seat. Word would spread quickly - this was high school, after all - so he knew that before long the questioning stares would turn into disgusted glares. It was selfish and he knew it, but he was going to enjoy the confusion while he could.
Rachel texted him during third period.
Something happened to Kurt. Meet me in the choir room during free period. We are going to cheer him up.
He kind of loved how Rachel used proper grammar in all her texts. He also more than kind of loved that he had the same free period as Rachel and Kurt. Most of the time they went to the choir room and practiced their songs for glee, sometimes just singing whatever popped into their heads. It was fun and Kurt happily told them more than once that he never felt like a third wheel with them, even though they were "sickeningly adorable."
So Jesse went straight to the choir room, not even bothering to go to his normal classroom. He hoped that nothing serious had happened to Kurt. McKinley was not a very gay-friendly school, and while Carmal hadn't been perfect, it certainly was better.
Kurt was already there when he arrived, and the smaller boy was curled up in one of the chairs. Jesse could tell he had been crying. He went right over to Kurt, putting an arm around him and realized that duct tape sucked when you could only communicate through facial expressions.
Rachel came flying into the room not long after, a notebook tucked under her arm, a camera swinging wildly in one hand, and the roll of duct tape on her other wrist like a bracelet. She passed the notebook to Kurt, and Jesse read over his shoulder.
We're going to do a NOH8 photoshoot!
Oh Rachel, I love your crazy ideas even more than your grammar-correct texts. Sure, it wasn't going to fix things, but Kurt loved the camera and was a complete ham when he was in a good mood. So this was bound to cheer him up. Rachel tore off a piece of duct tape for Kurt and copied what Jesse had done that morning, sticking and unsticking it to her pants. (Because Rachel was, for once, wearing normal pants.) She handed the tape to Jesse, then bounded over to the table where Mr. Schue kept their sheet music, looking for something.
Jesse put the duct tape over Kurt's mouth, half expecting the other boy to tell him to keep it away from him because it would do something bad to his skin. If Kurt hadn't been so miserable, he probably would have, which reminded Jesse of the reality of the situation. This still wasn't Kurt sitting in front of him, and when Rachel came back with a red and black pen, obviously not having any more of the tattoos, Kurt didn't even flinch when she started to draw on his face.
But the pictures did cheer Kurt up a little. It was weird, taking pictures and not talking while they did it. Normally Rachel would be bossily telling Kurt to tilt his head this way and turn just a little bit that way. But after the first couple pictures Kurt started to loosen up, actually moving to accommodate the camera and not the other way around. And then Rachel gave Jesse a nudge and he went over so he was next to Kurt and Rachel started taking pictures of the two of them.
Jesse was glad he had googled NOH8 the night before, because otherwise he would have had no idea what to do, and that is saying something coming from him. At first he and Kurt didn't really do anything, just kept still while Rachel took their picture, but then Jesse decided to make things a little more fun.
First he went around to he was behind Kurt, putting an arm around him and pulling him close. He was being possessive-Jesse, and on any normal day Rachel would have made a funny comment about being over here and tapping her foot until he came over and hugged her. But today was different. Today Jesse was trying to have fun, trying to get Kurt to act more like Kurt.
After Rachel took a couple pictures of Jesse with an arm around Kurt, he came back out to stand next to the other boy. He turned him gently so they were facing each other, took one of Kurt's hands and lifted it so that his index finger was on his own mouth. Jesse put his finger on Kurt's mouth and he could tell that Kurt was starting to loosen up. Rachel took pictures of the pair of them like that, then Jesse just pulled Kurt into a boyish one-armed hug that was similar to a headlock.
A couple more pictures, then Jesse switched places with Rachel. He took pictures of her and Kurt, egging them on by nodding enthusiastically and smiling underneath his duct tape. After a couple minutes the two were trying to out-diva each other in their posing and Jesse was trying his best not to laugh.
Then Kurt surprised them both by taking the camera and waiting expectantly for them to pose together. So they did, Jesse setting his arms comfortably around Rachel's waist, then turning around and standing back to back, then pressing their duct-tape covered lips together in a faux kiss.
That gave Jesse an idea. He looked Rachel deep in the eyes, wordlessly telling her to trust him. Confusion met his gaze, but she nodded, so he motioned for Kurt to come back over and switch places with Rachel. They did so, both confused, neither one knowing what Jesse was about to do.
He thought it would have been obvious to both of them at this point, but hey, surprises were fun, so he turned so he was facing Kurt, putting an arm around the other's waist and pulling him close, pressing their duct-tape covered lips together in the same faux-kiss he and Rachel had just shared. It was a little weird, because Jesse wasn't interested in Kurt at all and his girlfriend was watching, but it was still nice. It wasn't even a real kiss; it was completely innocent and neither Rachel nor Kurt seemed to have any objections. It was just a pose for the camera.
And if he turned his head a little and took Kurt's hand and made the smaller boy put it on his neck, well, he was just making the pose more genuine.
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Intro | Artie | Brittany | Finn | Matt | Mercedes | Mike | Puck | Quinn | Rachel | Santana | Tina | Will | Kurt (1) (2)