-Break-

Kurt spent his break patrolling on his own and reading the Slayer handbook. Despite his criticisms of and his unresolved arguments with his Watcher, Kurt really did want to understand about his Slayer heritage?

The trouble with the handbook was that it wasn’t very helpful on nearly any account. It often read like an outdated fifties women’s magazine. Kurt lost count of how many times he read the condescendingly toned ‘listen to your Watcher’ and ‘your Watcher knows more than you do’ and similarly worded warnings against any independent thought and when it wasn’t trying to brainwash him into submission, the book was vague and cryptic.

Kurt was especially interested in the psychic abilities that he was supposed to have. According to the Slayer Handbook, his body was supposed to have ‘a natural response to the unnatural presence of vampires’. Nowhere did the authors explain what that response was and how he was supposed to recognize it.

Having dreams of other slayers wasn’t considered a useful ability. They were real memories of past slayers, but only a temporary side effect of being chosen. The book predicted that those sorts of dreams would fade with time and sure enough, Kurt rarely had them any more. The dreams of his mother’s death were infrequent as well but they hadn’t disappeared completely. He couldn’t find any explanation for those. He was supposed to have prophetic dreams meant to guide his actions in the time of crisis, but so far he had never dreamt anything had turned out to be a forecast.

The book instructed him to dutifully tell his Watcher any and all dreams in order to determine their true meaning. Kurt was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to do that since most of his dreams didn’t have anything remotely resembling a connection to slaying though they often featured a certain dapper vampire.

Even though he didn’t have any of the mental abilities described in the book, Kurt was beginning to think that he was developing a gift. It wasn’t so clearly defined as precognition or even vampire detection, but Kurt was beginning to notice that he had a knack for being in the right place at the right time when it came to demons. It wasn’t nearly so useful as knowing where he should go; it seemed more like a series of strangely fortuitous coincidences. When he looked back, there were far too many to believe that they were random.

Kurt’s new katana, Alexander, was proving to be invaluable as well; he could hardly wait to tell Blaine of just how much he had come to love the gift. He took the sword with him everywhere that he could. He was going to miss having it on his hip when he returned to school.

Most of his friends were busy with family so he didn’t see Mercedes at all during the break. Kurt did however keep a journal of his exploits to share with her when they returned to school.

As he explored the hidden world of Lima, Kurt discovered that in addition to vampires, there was an entire society of demons as well. Few had been willing to trust him at first, but slowly he started the foundation of an information network among those that he believed were not doing any harm to humans and seemed to believe he in turn wouldn’t harm them. He was pretty sure that Will Schuester wouldn’t approve of dialog with the damned, but Kurt wasn’t one of the brainwashed girls that the Slayer Handbook had been written for.

-Back to School-

Mercedes looked enviously at Kurt’s pile of junk food which included pizza, a sizable batch of cheesy fries, and a side of cobbler.  She picked apathetically at her salad and baked chicken, trying to remember why she had resolved to eat healthier this year. It wasn’t like she had a boyfriend to care about.

“So how was your break, Boo? Do anything interesting?” Mercedes asked.

“Mostly slaying; there wasn’t much else to do. You?” Kurt answered in an almost bored tone.

“You know, the usual family stuff. I’ve decided to go on a diet. That’s my new year’s resolution,” Mercedes said indicating her salad. “Too bad we can’t all eat anything we want the way you do,” she said still eying his plate like she wanted to steal it.

“That’s not fair, Cedes; I pay for it in other ways. I burn a lot of calories training and patrolling so of course I have to eat like crazy.”

“I know,” Mercedes admitted with a long suffering sigh. They ate in silence for a minute before curiosity got the better of her.

“So did you run into anything new?” she asked excitedly.

“Actually, I did. I don’t know what it’s called, but there must be a giant nest of them because I killed dozens and I’m sure I didn’t get them all. They sort of look like zombies.”

“There are zombies?” Mercedes cried incredulously, her eyes wide with surprise.

“No, there aren’t. I said they sort of look like zombies. They aren’t human and never were.” Kurt went on to describe the gray skinned creatures that looked like shambling zombies from a distance but were clearly nonhuman when confronted. “The worst part is that no matter how much I chopped them up, they kept moving!” Kurt explained. “I had to burn them to completely destroy them. I’ll tell you, though, I’m so grateful for Alexander. I would have been dead otherwise.”

“Alexander?” Mercedes asked. “Seriously, you have a new boyfriend already?”

“Alexander is my katana, Cedes. Blaine gave it to me. It is so unbelievably fabulous. I was able to slice through those creepy zombie like demons like they were butter. I didn’t realize how much I needed a blade like that until I had one. The sais are good for up close and personal stuff, but Alexander is so fast and gives me so much reach,” Kurt babbled on with such enthusiasm that Mercedes thought her first assessment that Alexander was a new boyfriend wasn’t far from the mark.

“Wow, that’s some present, Kurt. Blaine must really care about you to give you something so…,” Mercedes paused to find the right word. “Useful?” she finally decided.

Kurt didn’t reply to her comment; he just went back to eating his cheesy fries.

“Oh, let me see if I can figure out what this new creature is,” Mercedes offered excitedly. She pulled out her phone and began clicking. “Gray skin you said? Can only be destroyed with fire?”

“What are you doing?” Kurt asked.

“Looking it up in the Watchers’ database,” Mercedes said distractedly.

“You can do that from your phone?” Kurt asked in amazement.

“Sure,” Mercedes said with a nod. “It’s not like the database is local. You just access it from the computer or phone. The database is actually in the cloud.”

“Cloud?” Kurt asked skeptically. “Is that some sort of geek thing? When did you get so computer savvy?”

Mercedes eyes traveled involuntarily to Sam sitting several tables away with Quinn, Rachel, and Finn. Kurt followed her gaze.

“Does this have something to do with Sam?” Kurt prompted with a sly smile. “Mercedes Jones, is there something you want to tell me?” Kurt asked.

“No,” Mercedes answered defensively. “I mean, we’re just friends. I took a computer class at LCC for the credits and Sam helped me with it. That’s how I got into all of this database stuff. He’s really smart, Kurt. Quinn doesn’t appreciate that. She thinks he’s just a dumb blond jock that she can have on her arm like a fashion accessory, but he’s so much more than that.”

“I thought he could barely read,” Kurt said speculatively.

“That’s a learning disability,” Mercedes said. “In fact, I’ve been helping him with literature. Quinn could do it if she cared, but she can’t be bothered.” Mercedes said bitterly.

“You are totally crushing on him,” Kurt said gleefully. “You should go for it, Cedes.”

“No way, Kurt. That’s just wrong. He’s with Quinn and he’s so sweet that he would never two-time on her,” Mercedes insisted regretfully.

“He did steal her from Finn,” Kurt pointed out.

“Not true. Quinn dumped Finn first,” Mercedes corrected. “Besides, look at them. They are all friends now.”

Kurt looked over at the cool table. Quinn was practically reigning queen and apparently, Rachel was now the crown princess by the looks of things.

“Who would have thought that Rachel would be with the cool kids?” Kurt mused.

“I know, crazy, right?” Mercedes agreed. “I guess getting Quinn’s sloppy seconds gave her a boost in the social structure.”

“Hey, don’t talk about Finn that way. He’s practically my brother now,” Kurt admonished.

“I thought you hated him,” Mercedes said.

“He’s not so bad in an oafish way,” Kurt said nonchalantly. “We did some bonding over break and I think we’re sort of friends now. Turns out, all I had to do was feed the boy pancakes and he’s my fan for life. There’s still some unresolved issues between us, but I think it is hard to hold a grudge when you live with someone. And our parents are so in love that it’s disgusting. That’s something we have in common.”

“Oh, I think I found your new demon. It this it?” Mercedes said handing Kurt her phone with a picture on the screen. “Maybe you should take picture of the demons and send them to me to put in the database,” Mercedes suggested while Kurt was looking at the scanned sketch. “Wouldn’t that be better than the sketches?”

“Sure, I’ll get right on that right between fighting for my life and, you know, fighting for my life,” Kurt snarked. “Yeah, I think this is it. And sure enough, I’m going to need to find the nest. It says here that they are called revenants and sometimes in the middle ages they were mistaken for humans that had been raised from the dead.  These are nasty creatures. I’ll call Blaine for backup.”

“Sorry, I can’t help more with that, Kurt,” Mercedes said with regret. “Rachel and I have bailed on you, but after that Holly Holiday incident…” Mercedes shrugged with an apologetic smile.

“That’s OK. It’s better without you. I’d just have to worry about protecting you and you can do this research stuff instead.”

“That’s really Mr. Shue’s job, isn’t it?” Mercedes asked thoughtfully.

“I know. Have you noticed that he’s sort of incompetent?” Kurt asked in a hushed voice. “I mean, really seriously clueless about this whole Watcher thing.”

“I guess,” Mercedes agreed reluctantly. “But he’s young so maybe he’ll get better?”

“That’s the thing! Why send someone so inexperienced? Why not assign a Watcher who has at least has some experience with the Slayer? He’s never even trained a potential and he’s in charge of keeping me alive; there is something rotten in Denmark, Cedes."

“You’ve been thinking about this too much, Kurt. I’m sure it’s just because he’s from here. He went to High School at McKinley so I bet he knows everything there is to know about this Hellmouth.”

“I don’t know. All I can say is that I’m very glad that I have you and Blaine to help me out,” Kurt added.

“Thanks,” Mercedes said gratefully. “I’m glad that you being the Slayer hasn’t ruined our friendship. I really miss just hanging out though. You know ordinary stuff like movies and bowling. Do you think we can ever go back to that?” Mercedes asked wistfully.

“I don't know,” Kurt answered sadly. He put his hand and Mercedes and smiled. “Maybe we could have a sleepover and a movie marathon soon. What do you think?”

“I’d like that,” she answered with a bright smile.

-Glee-

Will Schuester stood in front of the class with a huge smile on his face.

“I’m so proud of you for the win at Sectionals,” Will gushed.

“We didn’t actually win,” Kurt muttered with an eyes roll.

“We’re going to Regionals, Kurt, so that’s a win in my book,” Will replied sharply. “The fact that we tied with the Warblers in no way diminishes our accomplishment.”

“Except, we were only competing against two other choirs and tying for first really just means the Hipsters lost,” Kurt replied.

Will took a deep breathe and closed his eyes in a visible attempt to tamp down his mounting annoyance with his sassy Slayer.

“Let’s just focus on the positive and think about Regionals, shall we?” Will said reasonably. 

“I have several song selections that I’d like to try out. I know it may seem early to all of you, but Regionals is going to be much more difficult than Sectionals and I think we need to get started on our set list as soon as possible.”

Will passed out sheets of paper to all the glee club members with song selections printed on them. As the boys and girls looked over his ideas some nodded thoughtfully, others looked surprised or skeptical.

“A Journey medley?” Finn asked skeptically. “Isn’t that a little dated? Can’t we do some serious metal rock?”

“Mr. Shue, these songs are all from when our parent were kids,” objected Santana. “We’re going to be lame if we go with any of these.”

“I’ll have you know these are all classics and our choir went to Nationals with some of them,” Will insisted.

“Yeah, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth,” Santana snarked. “You remember? When that level of Jerry Curl in your hair was cool?” 

Will sighed in frustration. 

“Mr. Shue, if I may?” Rachel volunteered standing up. She motioned to Quinn to join her in the front of the class. “Quinn and I have a fabulous idea that will make sure the judges take notice of New Directions.”

“Let me guess, it involves you singing a solo?” Tina grumbled.

“Actually,” Quinn said calmly, “We were thinking of writing original songs.”

“Original songs?” Will commented skeptically. “I’m not sure that’s ever been done. You do know that there is more to writing songs than just a few catchy phrases, don’t you?”

“We are well aware,” Rachel assured him. “Quinn and I have already created several promising if less than perfect candidates.”

“I really like ‘My Headband’; it’s my favorite song,” Brittany enthused to an amused Santana.

“That probably wasn’t the best selection of topic,” Rachel admitted with chagrin. “It’s a process.”

“You’re not using anything we talked about,” Kurt warned sharply.

“I get it,” Rachel agreed primly. “Your love life with boys in prep school uniforms is off limits. 

Kurt gave her a scathing look then sank back with his arms crossed as the rest of the club stared at him.

“Not cool, man. Cavorting with the enemy,” Artie said with a head shake.

Kurt sat up straight and gave him a defiant look.

“We’re just friends and we don’t discuss glee anyway. Not that it would matter. They aren’t going to steal our songs because they are a completely different type of group.”

“Everyone just calm down,” Will admonished with his palms up toward the group. “Rachel, Quinn, as co-captains of the group, your suggestions are of course highly valued, but we shouldn’t count on being able to write suitable songs on our own. We’ll keep that option open, but in the mean time we should prepare some more traditional selections.”

“Mr. Shue, I really like this original songs idea,” Tina commented determinedly. “I think we should all audition for the song selections. We could each try our hand at it and then present our work to the group.”

“Sure,” Will agreed. “We have twelve weeks to get ready for Regionals so we can give that a try.”

While Will was speaking, Kurt leaned in to Mercedes and whispered, “Co-captains? When did that happen? Who put Quinn and Rachel in charge?” 

Mercedes whispered back, “We voted on it last semester. It was unanimous, Kurt, you raised your hand too; weren’t you paying attention?”

“Apparently not,” Kurt muttered.

“…In the mean time,” Will continued, “I want the twelve of you…wait.”

Will paused and looked at the students in front of him and began counting mentally. Artie, Tina, Mike, Finn, Rachel, Quinn, Santana, Brittany, Sam, Mercedes, and Kurt. 

“Oh no,” he groaned. “Where is Suzy? We only have eleven people. Does anyone know why she isn’t here?”

“Actually, I think she transferred, Mr. Shue,” Mercedes admitted. 

“That leaves us one short of competition again,” Will bemoaned dejectedly.

“Don’t worry, Mr Shue; how hard can it be to get one more person?” Rachel insisted confidently.

Kurt couldn’t help but notice that Will Schuester’s dedication to glee club was much stronger than to his ‘real’ job as Kurt’s Watcher.

-A Slushy in the Face is Like Being Bitch Slapped by an Iceberg-

Kurt walked beside Tina who was pushing Artie. Mercedes walked a little in font of Kurt beside the wheelchair as the four of them chatted excitedly. Mercedes the first to see the group of jocks approaching with plastic cups in hand. She gasped quietly and braced herself for the shock that she was too familiar with. Tina and Artie noticed the impending danger just a beat later. Kurt was oblivious. He was aware of the slushy tradition, but never being the recipient of the treatment he wasn’t conditioned to be wary of the sight of jocks carrying drinks. He had become to used to all sorts of other violent abuse in his freshman and sophomore year but with six months of slaying behind him, Kurt didn’t fear anything at school any more.

The cold ice hitting his face was shocking and painful. At first he struggled to catch his breathe, then he wiped the freezing red mess off his face and slung it to the ground angrily.

“What was that for?” he exclaimed angrily to the jocks who were standing in front of the group smirking.

Horror began to register on their faces one after another as they realized that they had inadvertently targeted the infamous Kurt Hummel. Kurt was well aware that the bullying that he had become so accustomed to over the years had stopped, but he hadn’t really thought much about what the other students thought of him. He would have been horrified to hear the rumors that were common including the most prevalent one - Kurt Hummel had made Dave Karofsky disappear. It was whispered using the vaguest innuendoes, but no one thought the boy would be returning. It was implied that anyone who laid a hand on Kurt would suffer a similar fate - whatever that fate was.

“Hummel,” stammered the red-headed boy with an appalling mullet. “We didn’t realize you were there. We only meant to hit the nerds.” 

The three jocks were clearly terrified of retribution and fled before Kurt could completely register what was happening.

The slushied teens cleaned up together in the girls’ bathroom. They had extra clothes and the efficient way they handled the situation was Kurt’s first clue that this wan’t an unusual occurrence.

“How often does this happen?” Kurt asked incredulously as he did his best to get the sticky mess off. “This is awful; this stuff gets everywhere. And my hair! It’s ruined and I don’t have a change of clothes. How do you guys stand this?”

Artie, Tina, and Mercedes shook their heads and glanced at each other while Kurt ranted.

“Why didn’t you say anything about this?” Kurt asked once they were all reasonably put together.

“There’s nothing you can do about it, Kurt.” Artie insisted stoically. “It’s just part of being on the bottom of the food chain.”

“It’s not that bad, Boo,” Mercedes added gently. “Not nearly as bad as being thrown in the dumpster and I know you had to go through that for two years. At least the girls only get slushied.”

“R..rea..really,” Tina stammered. “You ju..jus..just have to move on.”

“Tina,” Kurt asked, concerned. “Are you really okay? I haven’t heard you stutter all year.”

Tina took a deep breath and visibly pulled herself together.

“I’m fine,” she said with a smile. “It only happens when I get a little flustered now. Mike helped me get over my stutter this summer.”

The rest of the day passed without incident, but the entire experience bothered Kurt as he began to realize that he his new found confidence and unique skill set had spared him, but not his friends most of the pain of bullying. He berated himself for believing if it wasn’t happening to him that it wasn’t happening at all.

-The Monsters Within-

It was a few days after the slushy incident when things came to a head for Kurt. He was walking down the hall when he saw the same trio of jocks shove a small skinny African American boy into the lockers. The contents of his back pack when flying and books, papers, and pens scattered across the hall floor. As the hapless student scrambled to pick them up, the jocks laughed and kicked items out of his reach.

Kurt strode over and yelled, “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

The leader, who Kurt had discovered was a football player named Randy, backed away with his hands in the air.

“Dude, we’re just having a little fun, you know? No need to go postal or anything. Right, Urkel? Tell the dude that it’s all in good fun,” the redneck ordered his victim.

“It’s all in good fun,” the boy mumbled dutifully. “No big. I’ll just pick my stuff up and stop bothering every one.”

Kurt knelt down and began helping the boy gather his things. The jocks took that as their cue to escape. 

“My name’s not Urkel,” the boy clarified. “And you don’t need to help me.”

“I want to,” Kurt insisted. 

Once they had everything picked up they began walking down the hall together.

“I know what it’s like,” Kurt started sympathetically. 

“It gets better,” the boy said stoically. “That’s what they say, right? It’s gets better. I just have to survive four years and then everything is just gets better,” he repeated like a litany. 

“This has to end,” Kurt said more to himself than the other boy. “I’m Kurt, by the way.”

“I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are.”

“What’s your name?” Kurt asked.

“It’s better if you just leave me alone,” the boy insisted. “It will just be worse for me if they think I’m trying to get protection. That never works because they just wait until you are alone. The best strategy is to just keep your head down and try not to be noticed.”

Kurt just stood gaping at the boy as he rushed off.

Mercedes came up behind him and linked her arm in his.

“Why the long face, Kurt?”

“Do you know that boy?” Kurt asked. 

Mercedes look down the hall and shook her head.

“I think he’s a freshman,” she said with a shrug. “Why?”

“The jocks were shoving him around,” Kurt said distractedly.

“That’s nothing new,” Mercedes answered. “That’s just the way it is in high school. You can’t protect everyone.”

Kurt turned to her and retorted fiercely, “But isn’t that exactly what I’m supposed to be doing? Why am I the Slayer if I can’t even stop this sort of thing in my own high school?”

“Kurt,” she said gently. “You supposed to save us from the monsters, not each other.”

“We’ll see about that,” he answered. 

Kurt found out first hand how intractable the system was when he first tried Principle Figgins then Coach Sylvester. Neither seemed to care in the slightest. Principle Figgins claimed that McKinley had a zero tolerance for violence but seem oblivious to the daily petty harassment that went on right under his nose.

His talk with Coach Sylvester didn’t go much better.

“What can I do for you my little porcelain Hummel doll?” Coach Sylvester asked fondly as they walked down the hall together.

“That’s actually not half bad, Coach. Can we stick with that one?” Kurt asked.

“Sure, Porcelain, it suits you. Now what did you want to talk about? Make it quick, I need to see a man about a cannon.”

“I want to talk to you about bullying in this school. No one seems to care and I thought maybe as the most powerful woman in this school you could help me do something about it.”

“You know what, Porcelain, the world is divided into two types of people - bullies and those that allow themselves to be victims. I grew up with a hadicapable sister - did you know that?”

“No I neve-“

“So I learned at a very early age that the world is a cruel and harsh place. And do you know what very valuable lesson I took from that?”

“Protect the weak and innocent?” Kurt asked hopefully.

“To be a bully is better than to be the victim,” Sue said emphatically. “I became the toughest, meanest bitch on the block and nobody messed with us!” she continued proudly. “And today I teach that very same lesson to my Cheerios. No one bullies a Cheerio.”

“That’s because they are the beautiful, popular kids,” Kurt said.

“Exactly,” exclaimed Sue. “Now, take you for example. You used to be that awkward scrawny little caterpillar crawling around just begging to be stepped on. Now, look at you. The apex predator. That’s the way it’s done, Porcelain,” Sue continued. “I could use someone like you on the Cheerios, what do you say? Are you in?”

“Um,” Kurt swallowed awkwardly. “Sorry, Coach Sylvester, I just don’t have time to be a cheerleader. What about the bullying problem? Can you help me with that?”

“What bullying problem?” Sue said with exasperation.

“The one we’ve been talking about?” Kurt asked hopefully.

“Sorry, Porcelain, I have no idea what you are going on about. I stopped listening right after I told you I needed to see a man about a cannon. If you aren’t planning on joining the Cheerios then this has been a colossal waste of my time,” she said with a  scowl. “Think about it, ; you belong on the Cheerios,” she said as she sauntered away.

“Oh what are you looking at She-Hulk?” Sue yelled at Coach Beiste as she passed the football coach in the hall. “Just because you’ve won a few football games doesn’t make you a champion. I’ve got my eye on you!” she said making a ‘I’m watching you’ gesture from her eyes toward her rival.

Kurt didn’t miss the hurt expression that cross the normally tough Coach’s face before her hard expression returned. 

Maybe he had an ally after all.