I just finished polishing up my very first Glee fic. I'd been thinking of a billion different fics I could have written or could write based on my favourite pairings, but this one came a little out of left field, lol. Not really planned at all, but I dig it.

Anyways, if you're interested, follow the cut :) No sex, just some niceness and unexpected gentleness.


Kurt Hummel hurriedly left the school cafeteria after being watched by Karofsky like a hawk. It wasn’t the eyeballing that had made him nervous so much, but the salacious way it was being done. He knew that no one would see it or would even call him out on it if they did, so Kurt excused himself and made like he was headed for the bathroom and then skipped out completely. He found himself sitting on the concrete steps leading up to the front of the school with his bagged lunch clenched in his worried hands, trying to decide whether he should just go home or not. He sat for a few moments and felt himself starting to come undone. His heart began to bounce erratically and high in his chest, and his lungs felt a million sizes too small -- he couldn’t catch his breath. Kurt’s fingers and lips numbed and his eyes blurred as his field of vision shrunk scarily. His lunch bag slipped from his now trembling hands and fell on its side between his immaculately shod feet. Kurt tried hard to focus his raging mind and speeding breath but he couldn’t, and for a moment he was frightened. Fat tears squeezed their way from beneath his clenched eyelids and his slender body was wracked by silent, heaving sobs.

The tears were cut suddenly when Kurt felt a very large hand on his back just on his right shoulder blade. A kind of garbled shriek streaked from his constricted throat and he tried to move away from the touch, thinking it was Dave Karofsky coming from the cafeteria to make his life more hellish. As he moved away he heard a deep but gentle voice reassuring him, “You’re OK, kid. You’re gonna be OK. Put your head between your knees and try to take some deep breaths for me.” Kurt did as he was told and looked at the large pair of running shoes next to his and recognised them as belonging to Coach Beiste. She picked up his lunch bag and moved it aside while keeping a hand on his back, rubbing in soothing circles between his shoulders.

“You’re Kurt, right? From glee?”

Kurt wheezed some kind of response and nodded quickly.

“You’re having a panic attack. It’ll be over real soon, though, just hang in there.” Kurt grabbed for the coach and she took his small hand in her larger one for support.

The pair sat that way for long minutes and Kurt began to feel more stable and more in control. When he lifted his head again the football coach smiled at him and said knowingly, “It’s hard sometimes, isn’t it?” The boy nodded, needing no explanation.

She carefully smoothed the hair at the back of his neck and continued, “High school kids are animals, Kurt. I mean, some of them stay that way, but it really does get better, I promise. One day you’ll find where you’re supposed to be and things will turn out right.”

“Why are you in a place like stupid Lima in stupid Ohio, then?” Kurt mumbled timidly.

Coach Beiste chuckled throatily, “I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment.”

As the broad shouldered woman finished her sentence a loud voice exploded behind them making Kurt jump, “Beiste! What the hell are you doing out here?”

Coach Beiste got to her feet, now towering over Kurt, and whispered down to him, “I swear I wasn’t talking about her.” For the first time in a long while, Kurt Hummel laughed genuinely.

“Keep your jogging suit on, Sylvester. What do you want?”

Sue Sylvester strode down the stairs past Kurt and turned to the football coach, “The mediocrity rolls off those idiot people in waves. Makes me sick. Spending another single minute in their presence is going to make me add a length of rope and a rickety stool to my shopping list. What are you waiting for?” Coach Beiste shrugged and waved goodbye to Kurt who was still sitting on the step, a look of amusement on his face.

Sue nodded a greeting at the boy, “Porcelain.”

“Coach Sylvester,” Kurt nodded back.

Kurt wrapped his scarf around his neck and reached for his lunch as he watched the pair of formidable women walk away from the school. He lifted a bright red apple from the crumpled brown bag and was about to take a bite when something interesting caught his eye. Had he not been a naturally observant person, Kurt knew he would have missed it. He saw Sue Sylvester lean up to Coach Beiste, just barely, to better hear what she was saying, and he noted the way the larger woman nudged the Cheerios coach as playfully and as gently as a person of her stature was able. He watched the two women share a private moment -- he saw them laugh together. Kurt had never, ever seen Sue Sylvester laugh before unless it was to be cruel or mocking, and even though he had been one of the glee boys to sing to Coach Beiste, he’d never seen her as open as she was right then, sharing a joke with her supposed nemesis.

The bell went for the end of lunch, rocking Kurt out of his reverie. He threw his mostly untouched lunch into a nearby rubbish bin and climbed the steps back up to William McKinley. He didn’t feel entirely better and he was still worried about his problems with Karofsky and the other Neanderthals, but somehow he felt a little lighter. Maybe the bully wouldn’t ever really change and maybe people would never really leave him alone, but maybe if he could find what the two coaches had, even just a little bit, even clandestinely, maybe -- just maybe -- he’d be OK.