A/N: Here’s Part 2!!!

Finally, the Confrontation! What’s going to happen? Read and find out!

The Warblers were stunned into silence as their lead soloist not only yelled, but also swore, for the first time in their company. But it seemed like Blaine didn’t even care at that point, his furious darkened eyes zeroed in on the mystery jock as he squirmed slightly under the shorter boy’s scrutiny. Only when an outrageously tall boy with choppy, spiked brown hair lumbered over to Blaine did it seem like the soloist’s hackles dropped minutely. His attention turned to the tall boy in front of him, making how the taller boy fidgeted with unease under the shorter boy’s glare a bit amusing, but mostly dead serious.

“What is going on here, Finn? Why did you bring him here?” Blaine spat through gritted teeth, too angry to care about being dapper or polite in front of his boyfriend’s brother and friends. The other Warblers realized that the tall boy in front of Blaine had to be Kurt’s step-brother, a guy the countertenor spoke of with fond annoyance whenever they got the chance to hear hilarious stories involving Kurt’s previous year at McKinley and their glee club. But still the Dalton boys were confused as to why Blaine would be so angry at Finn coming to visit or why he was singling out that one guy in the back. Jeff and Randy glanced over to Kurt, hoping for some clue as to what was going on, but the slim brunet was still frozen in what looked like sheer terror.

“Look, dude, he just wanted to come and apologize. He’s changed. We’ve been helping him get through some stuff.” Finn hesitantly explained, for once trying to be discrete in a room filled with listening ears. Blaine just snorted in disbelief.

“Really, Finn? Or is this just some trick he’s pulled on you all to find out where Kurt’s been this whole time? You can’t trust him!” Blaine countered, still too angry at the fact that his boyfriend’s brother, someone who swore to look out for Kurt on his parent’s wedding day, would have the gall to bring Kurt’s former tormentor to Dalton, the one safe place Kurt had left after hearing that Karofsky was returning to McKinley.

“He just wants to talk to Kurt. That’s it. We would never have brought him here if we weren’t sure about him turning himself around.” Finn pleaded. When the skeptical look didn’t come off Blaine’s face, Rachel stepped forward.

“He’s right, Blaine. I, for one, didn’t believe it at first, but we’ve seen how he’s been reformed. He just wants to make peace, find closure. That’s it.”

Blaine barely held back the scathing retort he wanted to launch at them, wanting with all his might to call the others on their own treatment of his boyfriend over his time in New Directions. How in the beginning, most of them didn’t bat an eyelash at Kurt being bullied and physically injured in full view of the student body at McKinley, how even Finn and Puck bullied him in the beginning and didn’t do anything to stop the abuse until after knowing Kurt a full year. He wanted to tell them all that people just don’t change in a matter of days, with themselves being perfect examples of how long it takes for someone to completely reevaluate their outlook on others different than themselves and make a conscious effort to accept and support alternative lifestyles.

“I’m not buying it. I can’t believe you brought him here! You know what he did! How could you do this?” Blaine continued to rant, too righteously upset as the former tormenter of his beloved boyfriend was standing not ten feet away from himself, not fifteen feet away from Kurt. He could feel his heart hurt and his body tense as he thought back on all the horrible things the boy was responsible for, all the pain and torture he caused. Blaine never let up his withering glare at the, now incredibly, uncomfortable jock.

As Blaine was fighting with a majority of the New Directions, while the Warblers all watched in fascinated bewilderment, Kurt had still not moved a muscle since his friends and bully walked into the room. Kurt was paralyzed in terror, too afraid to move and cause unwanted attention from Karofsky. Everything that Blaine was saying, Kurt was repeating in his head. He was outraged, under the fear, that his friends and brother would do something like this.

However, while Kurt may have been stuck to his seat on the couch, his eyes were free to roam after the initial shock had worn off. He looked to the other Warblers as they had no clue what was going on, but were still complacent enough to watch the unfolding drama with focused attention. Over the months that he had attended Dalton, he had never mentioned why he transferred in the first place. Oh, sure, Wes and David would have some vague clue as to why, what with his near breakdown in front of them in the coffee shop on campus after his spying endeavor. But, later when he asked about it, Blaine had said that he never told either of them about Kurt’s bullying problems. Relieved, Kurt had extracted a promise from Blaine to keep it that way, to not tell the other Warblers about his dark past.

But, when the main reason behind his mid-semester transfer just waltzed into the commons room, into the only school that he could reasonably be safe at, Kurt realistically concluded that even if all of New Directions left without a word leaving Kurt’s mouth, the Warblers would be too curious to let it all go. They would ask him relentlessly about it all, and that was something that Kurt wanted to avoid at all costs. He couldn’t have all these boys look at him with pity reflected from their eyes. Kurt Hummel never accepted pity from anyone. Ever.

Looking back over to his group of friends, Kurt managed to glance at Karofsky to see how this whole confrontation was affecting him. The hulking, broad figure looked so much smaller without the bright red McKinley High football team letterman jacket on to cover him up and add the extra bulk to be intimidating. Karofsky just stood there, his gaze to the side, not looking at anybody. Kurt could see him shifting from foot to foot, his hands fiddling with his pockets in agitation as his shoulders were slouched. He was the picture of discomfort and ashamed embarrassment. Kurt thought this to be strange, since had never seen Karofsky as anything other than a walking battering ram, this looming figure that haunted Kurt’s days and nights as he stalked through McKinley’s halls.

Taking a moment to compose himself, finally allowing some color to come back to his face, Kurt studied Karofsky and thought about his friends’ words. They said that they were helping him with his issues, that he had been reformed. In good conscience, Kurt couldn’t allow himself to accept it all at face value. What Blaine had said was still plausible, that Karofsky could have tricked his friends into believing he had changed his Neanderthal ways just so he could find Kurt to follow up on his threat. But he also couldn’t believe that his friends would be so trusting without proof to support their claims. They knew what he had gone through every day back at McKinley. They all had faced similar harassment by Karofsky or the other ignorant jocks, so just jumping on the whole “let’s forgive Karofsky and give him a clean slate” bandwagon without a second thought sounded insane. So Kurt could safely assume that they had to see something in Karofsky that was worth the risk of coming here after school to stage this meeting. 

Taking a deep breath, Kurt closed his eyes and thought of the one thing that would help him in this situation.

Courage.

Making his decision, Kurt pushed himself up off the couch and began to slowly walk towards Blaine and his friends. He could feel the many eyes of the Warblers burrowing into his back with each step. Blaine, Finn, and Rachel were still arguing with occasional additions from the others, so he went partially unnoticed until he reached Blaine’s back. He laid a hand gently onto Blaine’s shoulder, effectively cutting him off from his rant mid-sentence. Blaine turned around to look at Kurt, confused by his boyfriend’s intervention, but silenced the question on his tongue when he saw the determined, guarded look on his pale face.

Kurt kept his eyes focused on Karofsky, not letting himself look at Blaine and risk his resolve breaking. He started to walk forward, heedless of Blaine trying to stop him, as he made his way over to stand directly in front of Karofsky. When he stopped within two feet of his former tormentor, Kurt would be lying if he said the old fears he had didn’t start to rise again, that his entire body was shaking, if unnoticeably to the others. Feeling the subtle heat coming off of the jock threatened to launch Kurt into memories he never wanted to think about again, the sounds of lockers being slammed and the feel of rough, desperate, angry hands on his face as harsh, foreign breath touched his skin. Internally shaking his head and banishing those thoughts, Kurt stared hard into Karofsky’s eyes.

The entire room had fallen silent, but neither the bully nor his former victim was aware of it. They didn’t notice how everyone was staring at them like they were the newest attraction at a fairground carnival. Kurt didn’t see how Blaine was within seconds of grabbing the slim countertenor, slinging him over his shoulder, and running out of the room, anything to get him away from the jock. Dave couldn’t see how the boys of New Directions were watching him intently, taking note of every anxious movement he made, ready to spring into action should he move so much as a finger in Kurt’s direction. All they were aware of was the person in front of them.

Dave cautiously met Kurt’s eyes, taking in the unspoken questions, past accusations, and heightened wariness that radiated from his glasz eyes. He could tell the smaller boy was intensely curious to find out if his friends were telling the truth about his changed ways. He could also tell that if he made one wrong move, one mistaken breath, that Kurt wouldn’t hesitate to signal his friends and apparent boyfriend to intervene. Dave knew that he would have to endure Kurt’s appraisal of him if he wanted to make any progress with his life.

After two intense, tension-filled, awkward minutes, Dave saw a change in Kurt’s eyes. They were looking at him differently than before, and that made Dave nervous. He couldn’t read people very well, much less Kurt, but he would have to be positively blind not to see that Kurt had made a potentially crucial decision about him. Dave was expecting the worst, for Kurt to tell Finn that he was lying and for him to call his prep school dogs on him. He tensed, ready to either fight his way out of a mob of blue blazers or run like the hounds of Hell were snapping at his heels all the way back to Lima.

Of course, what Kurt ended up saying when he opened his mouth threw everyone for a loop.

“Come on. There’s a bench in the garden where we can talk privately.”

Almost immediately the room descended into chaos. Blaine was loudly protesting Kurt’s decision, repeating over and over how he shouldn’t trust Karofsky and how there was no way in Hell that he was leaving his boyfriend alone with the bully. Many of Kurt’s friends were equally surprised and were just adding to the rising noise pollution levels by also calling out their own doubts about letting Kurt and Dave having alone time. Turns out, even though they were in agreement with Dave’s reformation, they were still wary of what could happen to their friend out of the public eye from past experience. The Warblers were so confused by what was going on they started calling out pleas to explain the drama that led up to this confrontation, none louder than Wes and David since they had grown a lot closer to Kurt, and if they were to go by Blaine’s vehement protests, they too were a bit uneasy about allowing Kurt to disappear from their sight with the much larger and stronger teen.

Kurt ignored them all, still watching Dave’s flabbergasted face as he slowly realized that Kurt wasn’t going to have him ambushed. When his thoughts caught up with him after the shock passed, Dave calmed and resolutely nodded. Kurt started walking out the door of the commons room, a slight quirk of his head signaling for Dave to follow him. Of course, Dave wasn’t the only one when practically every person in the room began following, too.

A brisk walk down the marbled hallway and a quick turn led the large parade to a side door that opened up into the campus gardens. Kurt barely had his hand on the handle when he felt Blaine rush up beside him, grabbing onto his hand to stop him from opening the door. The bulbous group of people stopped a few feet behind them, giving the two enough room to quietly converse.

“Kurt, you can’t be serious! He could hurt you! I’m not letting you go out there alone with him!” Blaine asserted, his body vibrating with worry and frantic panic for his boyfriend’s safety.

“Blaine, calm down. I’m not going to be completely alone with him. While I will speak to him in private, you and the others can watch from the patio.” Kurt soothed, relieved when some of the tension eased from his tanned face. “If something looks even remotely suspicious, I know you’ll come charging in to save me, along with the rest of the cavalry.”
Blaine, although pacified that his boyfriend wasn’t going to be leaving his sight, still looked incredibly hesitant.

“Blaine, I was going to have to do this at some point. I was going to have to face him eventually, if not for myself, but for him as well. After a lot of thought, I realized that if Dave and I were to never speak to each other again, then we would be the poorer for it. He needs this, Blaine, just as much as I do. This needs to end.”

After his small speech, Kurt could feel Blaine loosen his hold on his hand and the doorknob. Staring deep into Blaine’s chocolate hazel eyes, Kurt could see the fear and trepidation that his boyfriend was trying so hard to reel in. Kurt hated that he was the cause of his boyfriend’s current stress, but he didn’t lie when he said that both he and Dave needed this discussion.

It had taken only a month at Dalton for Kurt to realize that he couldn’t hate Karofsky anymore like he used to. Oh sure, he still hadn’t forgiven the jock for what he had done and what he had cost him, but he just couldn’t find it in himself to simply hate Dave. (1)
Kurt had always despised confrontation and violence. He was a pacifist by nature, albeit a sharp, sarcastic, bold pacifist. He lived his life by his father’s words, “No one pushes the Hummels around.” He didn’t let anyone just walk all over him. Kurt Hummel was no one’s doormat. However, he also tried his best to avoid instigating a confrontation as well. What happened back in the locker room had been started by Dave, but Kurt had finished it instead of letting it roll off his shoulders like fresh cherry slushy, like he used to do for the first three years of high school, and look where that had gotten him.

Kurt’s aversion to violence had led to him not wanting to be associated with negative emotions at all. He didn’t like the feeling of hatred welling up in his heart. He loathed how stressed it made him and how helpless he felt when he held so much resentment and spite inside of him, but was unable to physically deal with it. He wasn’t like Finn or Puck who used sports and football and violent videogames to let off some steam. Instead, he had music and singing to let it all out. But at Dalton, he couldn’t do that as much as he wanted to. He couldn’t just get up in front of the Warblers and belt out a song that expressed his frustration, impatience, neglect, and the injustice his life seemed to perpetually be in. He couldn’t stray too far from the narrow path that Dalton enforced on its students.

So after a month of being a Dalton student and a Warbler, Kurt realized that while he was still angry and embittered towards Dave for effectively ruining his life, stealing his first boy kiss, threatening to kill him, then forcing him to transfer, he could no longer hate Dave for it. Dave had issues with his sexuality, issues that he had been repressing and denying for who knows how long. And when Kurt fought back, had gotten up in his face about his ill-treatment and bullying, Dave had snapped. He couldn’t handle the object of his discriminatory actions, as well as the personification of what he was so desperately trying to deny, daring to show how brave he was in comparison to Dave’s cowardice.

It had become painfully clear to both boys that Kurt had never felt ashamed of what he was. Dave, however, did.

So, during an intense inner monologue and argument with himself while he was holed up in his room for a weekend, Kurt had decided to give up on hating Dave. It didn’t do him any good to resent the jock now that he had accepted his new reality of being separated from his friends and family. However, that didn’t disillusion him to the fact that one day, somewhere down the line, he and Dave were going to have to talk about this. Kurt couldn’t in good conscience allow Dave to skate through life in a lie nor could he allow Dave to wallow in misery should he ever decide to come out before graduation. Just the same, Kurt couldn’t allow himself to run away from his problems anymore, not when he would soon be out in the world when he starts college. He was going to face discrimination no matter where he went to further his education, so he needed to deal with what had started it all if he was ever going to have a solid foundation of strength in order to overcome any future obstacles.

“Blaine, I have to do this. You and the others can watch and intervene if necessary, but I need you to trust me.” Kurt pleaded. When Blaine looked into Kurt’s glasz eyes, he knew he couldn’t deny the boy’s request. He had always regretted his own cowardice when he had transferred to Dalton. He never got the closure of having his bullies be punished for what they did nor did he ever confront them when he had the chance. Sure, he had been on the receiving end of a horrible beating, but he would have shown them that they hadn’t broken him. Kurt was doing what he himself didn’t. His incredible, beautiful, courageous boyfriend was going to show that even though Karofsky had run him out of McKinley, he had not broken Kurt’s spirit.

Blaine finally nodded slowly, releasing his tight grip on Kurt’s hand. He stepped back a few inches and smiled softly, sadly, at Kurt. Kurt smiled back, daring to rub his fingers over Blaine’s hand while it rested on his own, a small but meaningful show of comfort. With a firm nod, Kurt pushed open the door and stepped out into the gardens.

The first thing they all saw was a large, rectangular cement patio that ran along the outside of the building. Beyond the patio’s edge, stood a lush garden, harboring fine specimens of perennial flowers and vegetation, secluded in rounded beds that flowed in free curves around the side of the building and out towards a whitewashed gazebo located in the middle of the lawn. Fresh bursts of pinks, oranges, yellows, reds, and magentas spilled over lush emerald green leaves as they overflowed onto pale gray and white stones that lined the beds. The air was strongly perfumed by the floral scents, but the gentle spring breeze kept the atmosphere from being overwhelmed.

By the corner of a sloping flower bed stood a single, long light gray marble bench.
Kurt started walking over the patio and crossed into the grass. Dave stood motionless for a moment before starting to walk after him. Neither Blaine nor any of the other students made to follow them, staying within the boundary of the patio, at a perfect vantage point to watch the up and coming conversation, but would be unable to hear it. The New Directions filed outside to line up near the hall’s large bay windows, Blaine standing with them, while the Warblers looked crammed together by the door, all eyes focused on the two figures as they approached the bench.

Blaine’s eyes never left Kurt’s form as he watched his boyfriend cross the lawn and primly sit down on the bench, with Dave hesitantly copying him, slowly sinking onto the bench roughly a foot away from Kurt.

The two boys sat in silence for a moment, neither knowing how to start the conversation they both desperately needed to have. Each second seemed more awkward than the last as they kept ticking by, causing Kurt to cross his legs and his arms out of habit while Dave kept trying to stare at anything and everything other than Kurt. After five minutes, Dave couldn’t take the tension any longer.

“I’m sorry.” Dave closed his eyes and sighed as soon as the words left his lips. Kurt rolled the words around in his head for a moment before responding.

“I think you are, but the question is why.” Dave looked at Kurt again, confusion easily showing through his scrunched brows.

“Why what?”

“Why are you sorry? Is this just a requirement that you need to fill, or are you genuinely sorry for what you’ve done?” Kurt asked, looking at Dave guardedly.

Dave took a minute to think about his answer. “Both.”

Kurt chuckled slightly, both teens surprised by the sound. “At least you’re honest.”

“Heh, yeah, well I don’t have much of a choice now.” Kurt looked at Dave, his eyebrow quirked, silently asking him to explain. Dave sighed, rubbing forehead in frustration.

“I…I told Azimio.” Kurt’s eyebrow’s shot into this hair, his mouth dropping open slightly.
For some reason, Kurt never really considered how Dave would come out, if he ever decided he wanted to. He definitely didn’t see Dave coming out to Azimio of all people, regardless that they were best friends. Azimio had to be one of the most homophobic people in all of McKinley, and he and Dave both knew that.

“What?”

“I told Azimio about being…gay.” Dave whispered, his face looking pained as he clenched his fists on his knees. “He didn’t take it very well.”

Kurt sat their silently, ruminating over Dave’s revelation. He could only imagine how much Azimio’s reaction must have hurt Dave, one of his longest friends, if he was willing to show his pain so openly to Kurt.

“I’m sorry.” Dave’s head whipped up, his eyes faintly glassy and wet. He looked shocked and surprised at Kurt’s words. Kurt noticed.

“Dave, I can be a pretty vindictive bitch sometimes, but I’m not so cruel as to revel at the fact that you lost your best friend since grade school. You’ve known and been friends with Azimio since we were in first grade. Losing someone that integral to your life is going to be unbearably painful and I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Dave could hear the sincerity of Kurt’s words and see the truth shining out of his pale blue eyes. Kurt was honestly sorry over the fact that Dave’s best friend had been a homophobic asshole and cut off all ties to him. Dave himself sometimes had a hard time believing that his best friend could just drop him so suddenly and resort to shunning him like the plague in a matter of minutes. He had hoped….well, not so much as hoped, but had unrealistically dreamed, that Azimio wouldn’t have cared about him being gay. He had wanted to know that Azimio would have still had his back, even after the confession, but it was only a dream. The real Azimio had gone from shocked to disbelieving to furious to stone-cold silent within the span of a minute, only to step away from Dave and not once look back. Seeing his best friend just walk away from him, like he didn’t even exist, had torn Dave apart.

It was only after he told New Directions what he had done did anyone try to comfort him. Sure, the Glee guys were a bit hesitant and uncomfortable with dealing with emotions, especially when they were coming from another jock, but they had tried. They had stuck by him when Azimio had passed them in the halls, throwing hate-filled, acidic glares at their way, until he passed. Putting on a brave front, Dave had waited until he was completely alone before he let any of his grief and despair show. It was during that emotional release that he realized that this must have been what Kurt had felt every time he had glared, slushied, tripped, shoved, or taunted the slim brunet. It was in that one moment that Dave had felt true remorse for what he had done to Kurt.

Dave let out a ragged breath. “Thanks.”

A/N: Okay, I’m betting that some people are wondering about Kurt’s reasoning and feelings about Dave, so …

(1) I thought very long and hard about how to transition Kurt’s emotions about Dave from anger to some form of patient acceptance. I took inspiration from the meeting in BTW for this chapter. I won’t assume what other viewers saw, but I saw that Kurt had stopped being afraid of Dave and accepted his decision about keeping his sexuality under wraps. I suspect that for a person to reach this point about the guy that basically sexually assaulted them and threatened their life, well, that person had to have plenty of time to think it all through and partially move on. So, here we are. Kurt took the time to work out his own feelings and thoughts concerning Dave, and found a way to move on. Point made.
And, just in case anyone out there doesn’t accept my reasons and storyline, save it. If you flame me, I will ignore you and laugh at your attempts. Con-crit is always welcomed and appreciated!

Part 3 coming soon!