~*~ Chapter Ten ~*~

Tomorrow is another day
And you won't have to hide away
(Run boy run; Woodkid)

Bill No. Eight passes committee - "Today the sun is shining!"

Hybrids celebrate the advancement of their rights and America is in uproar.

Political opponent Richard Morwin followed Jason Honower to Washington D.C., where the final election of the hybrid committee has taken place.

Not even ten months ago bill no. eight, supporting hybrid rights made its first appearance in the media, while it was first proposed to the American congress on january, the 18th. Today, a lot of political speeches, demonstrations and scandals later, it has finally been presented to the hybrid congress and passed it's last election yesterday at ten o' clock.

In Morwin's speech given only hours after the final decision, he called for a stronger intervention of the American government in the decision: "This bill is not ignorable. We should not be under the illusion that our lives will continue unmolested if we let it pass. It will make it's affects shown to everybody, at any time and that the government still thinks it can sit by while this happens is unacceptable!"

Funny that, taken out of context his words resemble Jason Honower's speech held at the same day almost unmitigated. The hybrid supporter emphasized that despite enormous progress in the fight for hybrid rights the path of the bill is not finished yet: "Even if – and I have little doubt in that – bill no. eight has finally passed, this will be by no means the end of our struggle for hybrids. We'll need to continue fighting for us, for our children and for a better country, until one day hybrids are an accepted part of society, just like humans."

The most important thing, according to Honower, is to keep the mistreatment of hybrids in front of the public eye and prevent them from forgetting, or ignoring the issue. Besides that the hybrid community needs to stay hopeful and let themselves not be brought down by criticizers.

"Today is a day to rejoice in the success, but of course there are always people who refer to what has not been achieved yet," Honower orated and cheerfully adds: "But today the sun is shining."

~*~

Kurt was worried about Blaine.

Well, actually Kurt was worried about a lot of things, beginning with an advanced biology test and expanding to the anxiety of potential awkward encounters with Finn. After their revealing talk the weekend before, his father's and Carole's relationship had blossomed and the only occasion she and her son were leaving their house now, was to sleep, or do their laundry. Kurt loved to see his father happy and Finn had taken in the new situation surprisingly well so far, accepting their new lifestyle whole-heartedly and seemingly eager to learn any- and everything about hybrids and their society, but the new situation hid difficulties. Suddenly having to adjust his life to two more people in his house was anything but easy. During their years of living alone, Kurt and his father had worked out a perfect interplay between work and school, combining their individual talents and optimizing the efficiency of their household. Needless to say that incredibly clumsy and naïve Finn and his good-hearted, but overprotective and far too yielding mother, disturbed the carefully found balance.

But even with all that on Kurt's plate, Blaine was currently on the top of his list. His friend – best friend / crush / potential love-interest – had been acting weird, ever since Warblers practice on tuesday. Not Wes and David – weird, but definitely different from normal, throughout distracted and loosing himself repeatedly in his own head. Not even Nick and Jeff's cuddling and cooing could get him to leave his thoughts and join Wes and David in their teasing or Kurt in his squealing.

At first Kurt had suspected that it had something to do with his own questionable behaviour concerning what he secretly called 'The one time a bird – Pavarotti, as Blaine insisted to call him - nearly revealed my deepest secret' - incident, but then it would be only logical for Blaine to limit his strange behaviour on the interactions between the two oft them. That was not the case and a quick consulting session with Wes, David in the time Blaine needed to use the rest room, confirmed that Kurt was not the only one concerned about their friend.

The solution? Well, Wes and David had worked out a complicated sounding talk-argue-discuss-convince-talk again - action-chain, but Kurt was a hybrid of simple methods and decided to take the direct route out of the problem by confronting Blaine. ...Which was a lot easier said than done, since between school, Warbler's practice, Blaine's weekly fencing lessons and of course his uncontrollable urge to help everybody with everything – weather appropriate or not – Kurt found it nearly impossible to find an undisturbed moment together.

It was friday when he finally got a hold of him.

"Hey. Hey! Blaine! Wait up!" Kurt called across the room, jogging forward to catch up with Blaine's retreating figure.

"Kurt, I'm sorry, but I really don't have the time-"

"Oh, for the love of-" Kurt huffed irritated, taking two large steps and effectively blocking Blaine's way out of the room. He then turned to look at his friend seriously. "Blaine, do you think I'm stupid?"

"Uh ..." Blaine replied, not sure if there was really an answer required from him.

"For your information: I'm not." Blaine quickly closed his mouth, nodding approvingly.

"And neither are Wes or David for that matter. Do you really think we didn't notice how weird you've been acting lately?"

"I haven't- Well, maybe I've been a bit inattentive, but-"

"Blaine," Kurt interrupted him quietly, gently laying a hand on his forearm. "I'm not here to lecture you and if you- if you really don't want to talk about it, nobody's forcing you. I'm just- We're just really worried about you." His voice got quieter and quieter during his little speech, until his next sentence was barely louder that a whisper. "You- you would tell us, if something serious had happened, wouldn't you?"

"Oh, Kurt," Blaine whispered. To his embarrassment he felt tears prickling at the back of his eyes. "It's nothing like that, I promise. I, uhm- Well a few days ago an old friend contacted me and asked if we could meet. Since then we've been writing mails back and forth and we'll see each other next week for the first time in ... it must be over a year now."

"Wow, must be one hell of a friend if he can make you that muddle-headed."

Blaine laughed, scratching his neck. "You could say that."

Kurt's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Something about the way Blaine was blushing just wouldn't sit right with him. "And ... where do you know this friend from?"

"Oh, we went to the same school in freshman-year."

Frowning confused, Kurt asked: "So, he is a student at Dalton?"

"No, no, no! God, I can't believe we haven't talked about that yet. I've been at Dalton only barely over a year. I transferred in the middle of my freshman-year from a nearby public school."

"You were at a public school?" Kurt recoils at his own tone, ears trying to press flat against his head. "I mean- you just seem so ... not-the-public-school-type." Because Kurt had never met a boy at public school worth swooning over. Someone friendly, with good manners, gorgeous – Kurt cleared his throat and fought desperately against the blush rising on his cheeks.

"Yeah, well that seemed to be a popular opinion." For a moment something dark fluttered across his face, but then he was smiling again, bright and carefree and Kurt was not sure if it was just his imagination running wild.

Frowning at himself, Kurt took up the original topic of their conversation again. "So, that's the only reason for your distractedness?"

"Yeah, sure. It's cute that you worry, but that's really not necessary." He squints at Kurt in the most endearing way. "All your worries settled now?"

"I guess ... if you're sure -"

"I am, absolutely. Uhm, and I promised my friend to mail him again today after school, so ..." Blaine trailed of, eyes flickering between Kurt and the door.

"Oh. Sure. Don't let me stop you." He stepped out of the way, reluctantly. Blaine waved offhandedly at him, leaving the room without as much as a second glance back.

"And a nice weekend to you too," Kurt muttered. He looked after him, shaking his head.

~*~

Saturday morning found Kurt curled together on his desk chair, tail slung loosely around the edge and brow furrowed in concentration as he brooded over a diagram of the nitrogen circle.

He hated biology.

No, that was not entirely true. Actually he liked biology, fascinated by the operations of the human body and the passion and patience their teacher conveyed her knowledge with. Just at the moment, when he had to memorize complicated chemical formulas instead of finishing the current Vogue, or doing some online shopping, yes in this moments he hated biology. Especially when he noticed that he had spent the past minutes blankly staring at the page in front of him, lost in thought.

With a frustrated huff Kurt clapped the book shut. A little shopping-break surely could not hurt and afterwards he would be able to finally concentrate on his work. Right? Right.

He had just cleared his desk from any distracting school supplies and set up his laptop, when there was a knock at the door. Without any further warning his father's head appeared in the doorway. "Hey bud. What's up?"

Kurt jumped in his chair, ears pressed flatly against his hair and teeth baring, before he got a hold of himself. "Dad!" he hissed. "Didn't I tell you to wait for an answer, before you barge in like that?"

"Uh, sorry. Will think of it next time," Burt muttered, hands held up in appeasement and Kurt had to held back a sarcastic 'Yeah, sure'. His father grinned guiltily at him, before his eyes fell on the computer in front of him. "Didn't you said you were busy with homework?"

Kurt's mouth opened in protest. "But I- I was! I was just ... ugh. Nevermind. Did you want something specific, or ...?"

"Wow, manners, son," Burt chastised and when Kurt sighed a quick apology, he continued. "I was simply making sure that you hadn't forgotten our plans for today."

Kurt stared at him with a lost expression for a few seconds, until his father rolled his eyes. "Visiting the office? Today? Around five?"

"Oh. Oh! That was today? What time it is?"

"Nearly four. The chance of you remembering an appointment were pretty slim, after all."

His son moved head and tail in a 'yeah, yeah' gesture, before shooing him out of the room.

"I need to shower, change and am not sure if I'm able to limit my schedule to even less than an hour, so shu-shu," he announced and Burt quickly backtracked out of the room.

"I'm leaving at point five," Burt reminded, causing Kurt to roll his eyes. "With, or without you."

And with that the door was closed between them.

~*~

At exactly five o' clock – or, maybe it was twelve minutes after five, but who really cared about such minor details – Kurt rushed up the stairs. One of his hands was still busy stuffing his tail under the elastic band of his sweatpants – something he would normally refuse to be seen in, but currently practical beat fashionable -, while the other dragged his bag after him and ignored the concerning 'thump' it made every time it passed another stair.

"M' ready!" he announced, nearly stumbling into his father on the landing.

"Uhu," Burt said doubtfully, "Are you aware of the fact that I can still see your ears?"

His son considered him with his best 'Really, dad?'-look, before producing a furred aviator hat out of his pocket. "That's why I've this on me!" He smiled cheerfully, while dropping the headgear over hair and ears. Sweatpants and fur hat, he probably transpired homeless, but where they were going looks mattered as much as your facebook status. Besides he would probably get rid of the hat as soon as they arrived.

Suddenly Finn appeared in the doorway, nearly giving Kurt a stroke, because since when was the other boy in their house and had he been here since last night's dinner? On the other hand he could hear Carole humming upstairs and the screaming and cheering out of the living room strongly hinted on some sports game screaming.

"You guys going to the store?" Finn asked taking in their bags and coats. "Can I come?"

"Uh ..." Father and son exchanged a glance. "We're not going to the store," Burt said carefully.

"Oh." Finn frowned, disappointment clearly written on his face. "Where are you heading then?"

"The local hybrid office." Or close by, anyway, Kurt added in thought. He was still debating with himself whether, or not to give out more information, when Burt spoke up: "There's an establishment in the cellars of the office, where hybrids and their friends and family meet regularly. Just to chat, catch up with the latest political decisions and ... you know – be themselves. Kind of like a youth centre, only for hybrids."

"Wow. I didn't know something like that existed!" Finn exclaimed and Kurt had to press his lips into a thin line, to stop himself from snapping.

"Yeah, well we're pretty exclusive. We try to involve as little people as possible, to keep safe." It did not seem like Finn had been listening to him, because his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and he was already grabbing for his jacket. "That sounds so awesome! I wanna' come!"

Burt considered him with a reproving eye and crossed his arms.

"Uhm, I mean ... Can I come? Please?" Finn said quickly, turning towards Kurt for support, because he very obviously had not registered a word of what the latter had tried to tell him.

On the other hand though ... Finn had taken everything concerning hybrids and their lifestyle surprisingly well and the relationship between Carole and his father was slowly turning into something more serious, so he should maybe get used to involving the other boy in his life. Burt was obviously coming to the same conclusion, shrugging and muttering a 'That's fine with me'.

Kurt nodded along, cringing when Finn slipped into his boots eagerly and yelled up the stairs:

"Mom? I'm going with Kurt and Burt to some super-secret hybridplace! Will be back at dinnertime!" Father and son stared aghast at him.

"What? Aren't we going to be back around dinnertime?"

Burt chocked on his own laugh, as he tried to maintain a straight face. "No, everything's fine, boy."

Kurt hid his smile behind the flap of his hat, before he followed Finn's example, calling his goodbyes to Carole, who was obviously used to her sons' cryptic messages and simply sent some good wishes downstairs. Burt ushered them into their coats and out of the doors and moments later they were sitting in Burt's car, buckling their seatbelts and pulling out of the drive-way.

~*~

They arrived shortly after six and Finn looked disappointed at the crouching, white and grey stone building in front of them. The sign on the entrance read 'Hybrid Office' and was just as the walls covered in unflattering graffiti. An overgrown path led through the squared front yard, ending in front of two wooden doors, windowless and simple.

"I swear, this is becoming shabbier every time we visit," Kurt said, batting irritated at a few branches, blocking their way. Burt held open the doors for the two boys and together they stepped over the threshold. Shockingly enough, the establishment was even more dilapidated from the inside than it had appeared from the outside. Paint was peeling of the walls, single droplets of water dripped into a metal bucket and the only furniture occupying the room were two tables that looked like they were fresh from the bulky.

Only one of them was occupied, a bored looking guy with greasy hair and glasses sitting behind it and drumming yellow fingernails against the scratched wood. As they passed him he stopped his movements, raising a lazy hand in greeting, before continuing to stare holes in a wall that look unstable enough to break under his gaze. A door at the end of the 'entrance room' lead them through a small corridor and down several staircases, ending in front of a silver gateway.

They moved forwards and then everything was suddenly gone and around them was nothing but air.

At least for the first few moments it took Finn to realise that he was in fact standing in a gigantic hall, walls far, far away, painted in a clear white and the floor an endless mosaic. It was also only then that he noticed all the people around him. There were several sitting areas all across the place, occupied by little groups chatting animatedly, or loners engrossed in books and what looked like newspapers. Right next to the doors five of them were sitting on blankets and cushions, playing various instruments in a careful melody.

Most of them were hybrids. From where they were standing they could also see some humans, bare any hybrid treats – or, maybe they were just not visible? -, but the majority proudly presented tails, feathers, scales, fur and one girl even bared fangs in a wide grin, when she spotted them. Kurt waved at her, storing his headgear and while Finn had been gaping, open-mouthed, he had also freed his tail that was now swishing excitedly behind them.

"Well, welcome to the hybrid underground." Kurt grinned slyly, one ear twitching to the side.

"Burt!" Came a voice from their right and all three turned to see a young man hurriedly approaching. He could not be older than twenty. Maybe twenty-five, his long hair, nearly as red as his tail was falling into his eyes, but he radiated an aura of respect that many teachers could only dream of. He reached them after a little slalom around various people and table, extending an inviting hand. "Burt! What a pleasure to see you again!" He shock their hands, one after the other and Kurt saw Finn wince, when the man crushed his fingers, but other than that he seemed not in the least surprised by Finn's presence besides them.

"I see you brought the newest addition of your family along," he said cheerfully, "Took you long enough."

"Uh, hi?" Finn offered, gently massaging his squished fingers.

He was rewarded with another blinding smile. "Welcome to the HU." His head turned towards Burt, expression suddenly serious. "I would love to stay and chat, but Alex wants to talk to you in his office. Immediately."

"'Course," Burt said, barely keeping from rolling his eyes. "Kurt, bud, would show Finn 'round for a bit? I'll be right back." And before Kurt could protest, or inquire him his father was led away by the other man. Kurt's gaze fell on Finn, who looked just as confused as he felt.

"That was Dean Podanski. He's annoyingly merry most of the time and the right hand of Alexander Winter, the head of this organization," he explained, "Now that that's settled and Dad has been kidnapped to who knows where... Let's begin the grand tour, shall we?"

Finn was still transfixed on where Burt and Dean had disappeared to, but a painful jab from Kurt snapped him out of his reverie and they started moving across the room.

"This has originally been an indoor swimming pool. You may have noticed the blue-white colour-scheme and the mosaics?" Kurt gestured towards walls and chairs and waited for Finn's nod. "Remains from the original purpose of this hall. The swimming area has been filled with concrete, ladders and diving platforms were removed and voilà; It was transformed into the core of our organization. It's mostly used for leisure activities nowadays; reading, playing music, catching up with the newest gossip, things like that." While Kurt had been talking they had crossed the hall and were now standing in front of an unadorned corridor. "This leads to where originally the changing- and locker rooms have been, but nowadays it has been transformed into a row of small offices and meeting rooms."

"Wait, hold on. I thought this was some kind of youth centre? Why offices?" Finn asked.

"Nobody really knows what's going on in there, but we suspect that Alex is in close contact with Jason Honower."

Finn's forehead creased. "The guy that supports hybrids? I think he was in the newspaper once?"

"Not only once. He and his wife are the leading hybrid activist in Ohio and heads of the campaign for bill No. Eight." Kurt sighed at Finn's blank face. "Bill No. Eight ...? The bill that is on its way towards the two committees? Ensures more rights for hybrids? Important milestone in hybrid history?"

"Uh ..." Finn still looked lost.

"The one with the tortured animals on their election posters?"

"Ah, yeah! So gross! Did you see that one – oh, wait is it insensitive to talk about this with you?" he asked.

"It's ... not my favourite topic," Kurt said carefully. Finn considered him for a moment, but before he could say anything else, they were interrupted.

"Kurtie!" A blonde girl waved him over from the other end of the room and he grabbed Finn by his sleeve thankful for the distraction, dragging him in her direction. "Come on. I'll introduce you to everyone."

The blonde that had called them over was sitting among a small group of girls, all equipped with various animal treats and sprawled across a cushioned bench and two armchairs. His friends grinned at him and Finn stared, wide-eyed at the colourful feathers framing the girls features and pervading her hair. They reached them just in time to see a dark haired girl slipping onto the bench and draping a possessive arm around the bird hybrid, ears twitching irritated as she fixed Finn with a glare.

"Filthy-claws!" She greeted Kurt with a curt nod, hostile eyes not leaving Finn, who seemed transfixed by the aggressive yellow iris, crossed by the slimmest of pupils. "Who's the zopenco gaping at us like he has never seen a girl in his lifetime?"

"Oh, Satan be nice," Kurt said waspish. "You're just jealous that I've brought a boy here, before you did." The words are out, before Kurt can think about the consequences and Finn looked suddenly horribly uncomfortable. He hastily stepped back, bringing as much distance as possible between them. "I'm not – uh I don't – We're not ..." he stuttered and Kurt silently cursed himself.

They had been doing so good. His and Finn's relationship had been strained at the beginning, but was ever since constantly improving. Improving rapidly enough in fact, that Kurt had stopped being cautious around the other boy and maybe that had been a mistake. But this was the place and the people Kurt never had to hide in front of, neither his race, nor his sexuality and when he was with Santana she knew how to push all his buttons and he never measured his words during their snippy back and forth.

"Relaxz," Another girl said. Two light-brown bunny ears were sticking out of her curls and her voice was streaked by a little lisp, caused from her out-sized incisors. She had kept quiet so far, watching the exchange with furrowed brow, but now the situation had gone a bit too far. "We know bezt not to assume anything. Expect, of courze we're told to do zo."

"Besides even I know that Kurtie-cat, here, has better taste than that," Santana sneered.

"Well, you would know all about bad taste, wouldn't you San'?" See? Classic case of Speaking before thinking. He risked a short glance towards Finn, but he appeared more relieved than offended.

"Well, ignoring theze two and their in-exizting mannerz ... " Rabbit-girl struck out her hand. "I'm Gabrielle, but call me Gaby. It'z a pleazure to make your acquaintanz."

"Uh, yeah, hi," Finn answered and Kurt is a little bit proud of him, when he only stared at her teeth for about two seconds, before grabbing her fingers. "I'm Finn. Our parents are dating." He gestured to the noticeable distance between him and Kurt.

"Er, yes, girls? This is Finn, the son of my Dad's girlfriend – you know, the one working for Doctor Leyfert? I've been telling you about her? Finn, this are Brittany, Santana and you've already met Gaby." Kurt had finally remembered their situation and patted girl, after girl on the head. "They're my best girlfriends in here – apart from Rachel and Mercedes, of course, but these two should be joining us soon."

"Rachel? The girl from our school? With the big nose?" Finn asked.

"Uh, yeah? That's one way to describe her, I guess," Kurt said slowly, "After her and Mercedes found out about me they were terribly eager to meddle with my hybrid life." His smile made it clear that he was not nearly as troubled by that as his words let on. "Apropos meddling ..." He trailed of, waiting for the girls to lean closer curiously.

"What'z new? Some gossip for a thirzting girl?" Gaby asked eagerly.

"Not necessarily new, but – remember I told you about Wes and David?

Santana smirked. "Ernie and Bert, with the alarming intimate relationship?"

"Eh, not really. Anyway, you know they've convinced themselves that Nick and Jeff are secretly madly in love with each other and that it would be the most brilliant idea to influence that relationship?"

The girls 'hm-hmed' and Kurt delicately stretched, before launched himself into a detailed description of the past days event. Gaby and Brittany proved to be an excellent audience, laughing at all the right places and cooing exaggerated whenever Kurt described Nick and Jeff's interactions, but Santana felt the need to comment every second sentence, confusing Finn, who seemed to have problems following the story. When the tale reached the boiling point, where they had stumbled upon Nick and Jeff making out, Finn held up his hands.

"Whoa, wait. Hold on! Why where the two dudes kissing?"

Kurt frowned at that, an uneasy feeling compressing his chest. "Because they were – are together," he said slowly.

Finn considered him for a moment. "But, I thought the whole point of the story was to get them together?" he asked slowly and Kurt breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment he had really thought.

Santana groaned, rolling her eyes. "Oh mon dios! That's the punch line, Finnocence. They've been a couple all along, surprise, surprise!"

"Oh. Oh!" Finn chuckled surprised. "That's funny." Santana's mouth slowly clapped open and Kurt felt the urgent need to change the topic."Uhu, apropos funny stories: Have your read the speech Morwin held yesterday?"

Gaby snorted loudly, wrinkling her nose. "Hah! Yeah, can't imagine he really believez the rubbizh he'z talking."

"Bunch of bullshit," Santana agreed, picking her nails.

"We're lucky that Honower was foreseeing enough to prepare a contradiction," Kurt said, thoughtfully scratching his ears.

"And that we have enough zupporterz to continue demonztrating." Gaby combed slowly through her hair.

Santana humpfed pejoratively. "Like that's going to change anything."

"Better than doing nothing, isn't it?" Kurt said.

"Not if people are getting hurt!" Santana's voice had rose on its own accord and Brittany extended a finger, soothingly stroking her nose. This distracted the Latina long enough for Gaby to continue her argument.

"You're talking about individual cazez and light injuriez. Not blood and thunder."

"So far!" Santana grumbled, but her attempts were half-hearted.

"Well, the protezt we've been to went by abzolutely peaceful." Gaby's finger tangled in a knot of her curls and her nose twisted annoyed.

"We?" Finn whispered towards Kurt.

"Gaby and her boyfriend. He's a big hybrid supporter and escorts her to all sorts of events," Kurt whispered back, turning towards Gaby. "You two started going to demonstrations again?"

"Uhu, when Honower called up for proteztantz lazt week, we decided it couldn't hurt to join them. It waz quite exhausting, but a great experience. One of the bezt marchez I've ever been to."

"Where there many people?" Kurt asked, leaning forward in interest. His father had never allowed him to join any of the protest marches, no matter how much Kurt had wanted to. "I haven't seen anything in the papers, so I doubt there has been a huge rush, was there?"

"That dependz how you would define 'huge', I guezz, but I met a lot of familiar facez. And we had tonz of fun." She laughed at that, caught up in a happy memory. "You zhould come with uz next time."

"I doubt my Dad would allow it, but I'll ask him," Kurt said and speaking of the devil he noticed that while they had been talking, Burt had come back into the room. He appeared to be deep in conversation with a dark-haired man, arms crossed and mouth pressed into a thin line. Kurt turned back to his friends, eyes falling on Rachel and Mercedes, who had just entered. A smile overtook his feature and tail waggling excitedly, he waved them over.

"Hey girlz!" Gaby grinned at them, nose scrunching up adorably.

"Beyonce, Betty Boob," Santana acknowledged them and Rachel huffed offended.

"Why do I have to be Betty Boop?" she asked, just as Kurt's phone started to vibrate on the table. He spared it a short glance, before declining the incoming call, without bothering to check the caller ID.

"Oh, I'm sure in your head you always saw yourself as Barbara, but you can't fight the truth." Santana's forked tongue slipped out to wet her lips and Rachel turned away, shuddering. She could deal with most hybrid treats, but Santana sometimes gave her chills.

Kurt dragged his tail warningly along the snake hybrids back and patted Rachel's arm comfortingly. "Satan's a bit touchy today, but don't worry," he said, gesturing for them to join them. "Oh, I've brought Finn along. You've met in school before, right?"

"Hi Finn!" The girls chorused, breaking into giggles and to Kurt's horror he saw a blush forming on Rachel's cheeks. He thought she had overcome her little crush on the boy from the beginning of the year, when he had put his football-popularity before glee-club, but obviously he had been wrong.

Mercedes dragged two chairs across the room, placing them next to their table.

"So, what's the topic?" she asked conversationally and Gaby and Kurt exchanged a short glance.

"Hybrid politics," Kurt said, causing Mercedes to role her eyes.

"Oh, not again! I thought we had established that sufficiently."

Rachel threw a quick look towards Finn, before nodding along. "There are far more urgent matters to discuss," she said seriously, "Anthony Rashad has stared at Mercedes for approximately 2.3 seconds today."

"No way!" Gaby exclaimed. "The footballer you've been telling uz about?"

Mercedes blushed, but nodded. "Exactly. But there's a bit more to the story than Rachel let's on. It all started in first period, when Jacob Ben Israel interviewed Karofsky ..."

Kurt startled at the name and quickly tuned her out. As much as he loved a good piece of gossip, he really did not want to be reminded of that particular person right now. He let his gaze wander around the room, only stopping when his eyes fell on his father.

Burt was still talking to the unknown man, with a concerning serious face and Kurt briefly wondered if he should walk over and find out what their conversation was about, but then his phone vibrated again and he forgot about his father for the time being.

"Who's so keen on getting' your attention, KK?" Santana asked, grabbing the phone Kurt had not offered her and checking the caller ID. He hastily threw his arms and tail out, trying to catch the retreating hand, but Santana has the reflexes of a ... well of a snake and in that case snake beats cat, so it's no use. Huffing, he and his tail settled back in his chair. "What does KK even stand for?"

"He's the singer from Animal Crossing," Brittany stated and Santana smiled and squeezed her hand.

"Oh, it'z Blaine!" Gaby exclaimed, chin resting on her friends shoulder, while she read along. Kurt's ears twitched curiously, the urge to snatch his phone away from them suddenly much more urgent.

"Little McStalker-pants keepin' you busy, eh?" Santana is typing on the screen with her manicured fingernails – ironically painted in a snakescale pattern -, but her eyes were fixed on Kurt's face.

"Wh- I- He- No! Give me my phone!" Spluttering, he dumped both of his hands between the girls. "Maybe it's important."

"Of course it'z important," Gaby said seriously, "It'z an urgent matter of lo-ho-ve." She and Brittany broke into hysterical giggles.

"Oh god. Why am I still talking to you?" Kurt grumbled, finally being lord of his phone again, he unlocked it and jumped up. "I'm going to take this real quick."

"Don't forget to tell him about your undying love," Brittany said, face earnest. Not sure if she was joking, or not, but blushing all the same, Kurt increased the distance between him and the snickering table and pressed the green receiver.

"Blaine! Hi!" he cried out, voice far too high and breathless. Brittany and Gaby cooed elongated.

"Kurt," Blaine said slowly and Kurt blushed tomato-red, when the girls started making loud kissing noises. "Uhm ... is this a bad time?"

"No!" Kurt said, too quickly and too loud. "Absolutely not! It's a bit loud in here. Let me just-"

He glared at his friends, quickly backtracking and bringing as much distance as possible between his phone and their shrill giggling. "Okay, I'm alright now. What's up?"

"I simply wanted to talk to you." Blaine's voice sounded muffled, but did nothing to ease the blush on his cheeks. "I mean, our last conversation ended kind of abrupt and I wanted to – I don't know? Prevent any awkwardness? God, that's weird isn't it? I'm acting weird."

"A bit, but in a very debonair way," Kurt said quietly and is glad that nobody can hear how dreamy his voice sounds. He cleared his throat. "Everything's perfectly alright. So, have you talked to your ... uh, friend yet?"

"Hm? Oh, yes. We exchanged a few emails yesterday and agreed on meeting wednesday, after school."

"So soon?" Kurt hissed, tail straightening up and Blaine paused. "Uh, I meant ... isn't that a bit rash?"

"You think so? Sure, we haven't seen each other in quite some time, but you know it's just some friends getting coffee, casual coffee. A casual meeting. Absolutely casual."

"Blaine?"

"Sorry. I'm a bit nervous"

"Nervous?" Even to his own ears, pressed flat to his head, Kurt's voice sounded strangled.

"Yeah, as I said the last time we saw each other was ages ago and ever since then it has been tense between us. What if it's awkward?"

"Has it ever been awkward between you two before?" Kurt asked carefully.

"No, not really."

"Did you part on bad terms?"

Blaine let out his breath slowly. "Not really, we just lost contact with time and distance."

"And the email contact? Any awkwardness there?"

"Nope." Blaine huffed out a laugh. "I'm acting irrational, aren't I?"

"I don't know about that, since I've never met your friend, but from what you've told me I don't think you've anything to be worried about."

"That sounds surprisingly reasonable. How are you so good at this?"

"Lot's of practice with PPP," he stated matter-of-factly, tail curling casually around his arm.

Blaine paused. "PP ...P?"

"Pre-performance-panic. Handling hysteric girls gives you a certain calmness in situations like this." He smiled over at the girls sitting around the table, catching their stares and hushed whispers. Oh great. They were talking about him.

"... Right. You'll have to tell me more about your secret ways, when we see each other again. For now, tell me what you've been up to on this fine weekend?"

Kurt shrugged. "Nothing big, dinner with Finn and Carole yesterday, they came over today and we're meeting a few friends."

"Oh shoot, that was the noise in the background. God, I'm totally holding you up!"

"Blaine, it's fine. They actually encouraged me to take the call." He looked back towards the huddled table, an uneasy feeling settling in his stomach. "But I should probably get going soon anyway."

"Alright, I guess I'll see you on monday?" Blaine's voice sounded ridiculously hopeful. Ridiculously, not endearing, or swoon-worthy. No, not at all. Kurt nodded, before remembering that Blaine could not see him. "Yup. Until then..."

"Take care, be careful, you know how they say: Better safe than sorry and if I remember correctly -"

"Blaine, you're acting weird again," Kurt sing-songed, stroking his tail with a fond expression.

"Right, sorry. Hanging up, now."

Kurt joined into his silent laughter, shacking his head affectionately. "Bye."

He ended the call with a small smile on his face, slowly making his way back to the girls and Finn. While he had been gone, Rachel had occupied his place on the bench and was currently talking animatedly about something that judging by her hand gestures involved someone drowning and at least three chicken. Finn, the momentous centre of her focus, looked a little overwhelmed, but not at all displeased at the attention.

"Zo, that waz Blaine?" Gaby asked after a moment of silence, causing the rest of the table to erupt in silent giggles and Rachel and Finn to snap momentarily out of their little bubble.

The blood rushed towards Kurt face, embarrassment fighting against the urge to gush, but both is quickly dampened when his eye caught Finn's. He and the other may be on the best way to becoming good friends, but Kurt was far from comfortable enough around his once-upon-a-time bully, to suddenly start discussing his love-life around him. Rachel, next to him seemed to overlook the situation with one quick glance and Kurt is reminded once again why she is one of his closest friends, when her hand closed around Finn's arm and she asked him sweetly if he would like to see their book collection. Finn did not really want to, but between Rachel's hopeful eyes and the firm grip on his arm, he had little to no choice.

"Now that Bugberry has taken care of Finnocence and his benighted human ears ..." Santana trailed of, forked tongue clicking meaningful against her teeth.

"We can get back to the political conversation-topic?" Kurt asked hopeful, squirming uncomfortable on his seat. His tail was curled protectively around his stomach and his ears jerked when Gaby started whispering a endless chant of "Zpill, zpill, zpill." in them.

"There's not much to spill anyway," he tried.

"Oh, that's good. Spilling always gives you stains on your clothes," Brittany said and Santana thread one hand through her hair. "Not like that, Brit. We want him to talk about his relationship with Blaine."

"There's no relationship," Kurt muttered.

"But I thought you liked him?" Brittany asked.

"Of course I like him," Kurt said and Mercedes squealed. "We've become very good friends, best friends even and it's nice to have someone who ... understands." He felt a feathered cheek scrap across his neck, when Brittany scooted closer and laid her head on his shoulder in a comforting manner. Apart from that the girls stayed silent though and Kurt felt the urge to continue. "And even if I liked him in that way, even if, that wouldn't be all too horrible, would it? I mean, he's charming and friendly, has incredibly good-manners and is downright gorge-" He quickly stopped himself, but Gaby's eyes were already gleaming and Santana let out a low whistle.

"Wow, Kurtie-cat. That piece of man-candy certainly has your panties in a twist."

Mercedes nodded dedicated. "He's making you gush as if he was Matt Rutherford."

"Mercedes! I've told you that in confidence!" Kurt hissed angrily, tail slapping reproving against her arm.

"Wow-wow-wow. Matt from your glee-club?" Gaby asked disbelieving. "Dark skin, even darker soul and dumping girls right and left from him?"

"He's totally hot, though," Brittany added and Santana nodded and held her hand out for a high-five.

"Didn't think you had it into you, Kurtsekins!"

Kurt bared his teeth at her. "Can we get back to topic, now?"

"If you insist." Mercedes grinned. "So, honest relationship with Blaine?"

"Maybe I'm crushing on him," Kurt said silently. "A bit." A lot.

"Hah, I knew it," Gaby muttered.

"But it's not like it matters anyway, does it? First of all, he will never like me back - why would he? - and even if the unlikely happens, I could never start a relationship without revealing my true self and if I do that, he will freak out and panic and run away and hate me forever." At the end of his rant, Kurt was breathing heavily and his eyes were widened in panic.

Gaby crossed her arms. "There'z zo much wrong with thiz, that I don't even know where to begin!"

"Yeah, you're selling yourself short, KK," Santana said almost tenderly, before adding: "If I was into your equipment I would totally tap that."

Brittany nodded, stroking his fingers. "Your skin is very pretty. And soft."

"Thanks girls, but it's no use. Let's change the topic, shall we?"

"But Kurt -" Gaby said.

"Oh look, is that Rachel? And Finn? Funny seeing you here. Where did you disappear to?" Rachel, still several meters away from their table and caught up in conversation, turned her head and stared confused at him.

"Uh, hi?" Finn offered, slowly approaching the rest of the group.

"We were just coming back to you guys," Rachel said. "Kurt, we talked to your father and he said that you and Finn have to head back soon."

"Mum's waiting with supper," Finn said, rubbing his stomach approvingly. "Burt's waiting for us upstairs in the office." Kurt nodded, grabbing his bag and shuffling from behind the table. "Alright. It has been lovely ladies, as always." He kissed Gaby and Mercedes on the cheek, Brittany on the top of her head and even Santana reluctantly accepted a smack on her forehead. Finn stood uncomfortable next to the table, not really sure about the appropriate social protocol and settled on a simple wave. "Uh, bye. T'was a pleasure," he said hesitantly and Rachel beamed at him.

"I'll see you in school, Finn!"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Finn muttered, while they slipped into their coats, waving at the table one more time, before retreating into the hall.

"So long, girls. I'll see you for coffee next week Mercedes, Rachel," Kurt called back at them and he heard Mercedes snort. His phone, still held tightly in his hand, vibrated once, signaling an incoming text.

Call me, as soon as you get home. Don't think this Blaine-conversation is over, young man – Mercedes