Title: Brothers

Author: Spider

Pairings: Finn/Rachel, mentioned Kurt/Rachel, Puck/Rachel.

Rating: PG

Warnings: Bad words and mentions of sex and drinking

Spoilers: Season 1

Disclaimer: DEFINITELY not mine.

Summary: When Finn's manwhore good-as-a-brother slept with his girlfriend, who he always seemed not to care one way or another about, it really sucked.

When Finn's gay stepbrother sleeps with his girlfriend, who he always seems to have hated, it's really unfair.

Word Count: 3314

Notes: This was written for a prompt on the glee angst meme. h t t p : / / c o m m u n i t y . l i v e j o u r n a l . c o m / g l e e _ a n g s t _ m e m e / 3 0 6 5 . h t m l ? t h r e a d = 3 6 3 7 7 5 3 # t 3 7 1 1 9 9 3

I'm not dead! But I have joined a roleplay (McKinley High (mckinley-mod. Insanejournal. Com/ 812. html ) as Kurt (and Azimio!), and when I'm RPing, my fic writing dwindles. Massively. But you're always welcome to check out the drama of the game... or join in! We need a Finn, and I'm looking for a papabear!Burt!

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BROTHERS

There was a knock on Finn's door, but he ignored it. If it was David, his roommate, then served him right for forgetting his own keys (though David never came back Friday nights, always spending them with his latest girlfriend or fuck buddy. Or both). If it was anyone else, they weren't important. Finn leaned his cheek on his hand, half-heartedly clicking his Farmville crops to be harvested. Facebook. On a Friday night. He was so pathetic.

There was another knock on the door, but Finn just flipped it off, because he could. And then he felt bad about it, even though whoever was knocking couldn't see. Giving someone the finger was rude, and his mom had raised him better than that.

Unlike some people, whose mother didn't raise her to be a proper lady at all.

Finn closed out of his farm after another few minutes and checked his news feed. There was a new update from his stepbrother from just a minute ago.

Kurt Hummel wishes Finn would stop feeding virtual animals and open his door already.

A third knock, a little more insistent this time, and Finn scrambled to his feet, tripping over his chair. Boy and chair both fell to the ground, Finn's palms and knees taking the brunt of the blow. Kurt was going to laugh at him...

First things first, though. Finn picked himself up (he didn't bother picking up the chair—served it right for attacking him in the first place) and flung his door open.

Kurt was laughing, one of those silent, in-his-head laughs that Finn had learned to recognize by how high his left eyebrow was raised (left meant laughter, right meant he was genuinely stunned by you) and the twist of his smirk. He had his arms crossed loosely, all his weight on one foot, which meant his hip was outthrust in a way that made him look almost painfully gay, and he was dressed in all black from the top of his hat down to his snakeskin boots. Even the overnight bag slung on his shoulder was black. "Kurt!"

Finn laughed now as he tackled his step-brother, grabbing him in a bear hug and all but carrying him into the room. Kurt had never caught up to him in height, and he never would. Finn loved manhandling his little big brother around, because it made Kurt act like a cat, all fluffed up and hissy over the state of his clothes.

Kurt laughed too, a real laugh, hugging Finn back and squirming out of his arms just as soon as he was past the threshold. "It's good to see you too, Finn."

"What are you doing here?" Finn asked, shoving dirty clothes aside on his bed to make room for Kurt to sit. "Did New York burn down or something?"

It was the middle of a semester for both of them, but while Finn had made it into Ohio State, Kurt had fled Ohio for Pratt Institute in New York City. The city loved him, from the way Kurt would turn up to the major holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter, with a huge glow about him, running his mouth non-stop about the fashion and the shows and the shopping (and the boys, though his brother always kept that talk to a PG level for his dad's sake). He always found summer jobs there, so he never had to leave the city more than a couple weeks at the most. There was simply no reason Finn could think of for Kurt to just show up out of the blue on his doorstep.

"New York is fine," Kurt said. "Do I need an excuse to come visit my brother?" He dropped his bag on Finn's bed and stepped back toward the door. "Come on, grab your shoes and keys. I'm taking you out tonight!"

Thirty minutes later, Finn and Kurt were seated at the bar at Little Willy's, Finn's favorite bar. Finn was on his second Corona, while Kurt was still nursing his first lurid green appletini. "Why are you here?" Finn asked, studying Kurt. "Everything all right with you?"

Kurt smiled softly, giving a nod. "Yeah. I'm fine. New York is fine. Better than fine. We're great. But you... I'm here because everything's not all right with you."

"How did you know that?" Finn asked, his eyes widening. Kurt had always been freaky about knowing what was going on in his head when they lived together, just like how Rachel could read his mind (and no, bad, wrong, Rachel was a bitch Finn wasn't going to think about!), but Finn hadn't thought his powers could extend over several states.

Kurt raised his left eyebrow. "Finn, you broadcasted on Facebook. Any friend of yours knows you've been having a rough time lately. Girl problems..."

"If you came here to try to turn me gay again, you're just wasting your time," Finn said, remembering Kurt's unsubtle advances in high school. "I like sex with girls."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Girls and sex are a disgusting combination, and I can't see how you could possibly stand it."

"Hey!" Finn said, elbowing Kurt. "Girls and sex are awesome, and you shouldn't knock it until you've tried it!"

"I have tried it," Kurt said.

"Brittany doesn't count."

Kurt laughed and shook his head. "No. I mean, I've had sex with a girl. Yes, actual penetrative intercourse, and not just a horribly awkward makeout session in my basement. So I have tried it, and it was gross."

"You've had sex with a girl!" Finn stared at his stepbrother in shock. Kurt was capital-G Gay, and he still managed to get more pussy than Finn? That was not fair. "How did that happen!"

"A lot of alcohol," Kurt said. "A lot of alcohol. And... yes. A lot of alcohol. And she said she'd had a crush on me forever, and I said... you know, I think I said something about the Wicked Witch of the West. And the next day, I had a new reason to not drink excessively, or go so long between hookups."

"You didn't knock her up or anything, did you?"

"God, no!" Kurt looked horrified at the very thought. "Oh no, babe. Condoms are automatic for me, even when I'm marinating my brain..."

"Good." Finn nodded, then nodded again, signaling the bartender for another beer. "So... you've had sex with a girl. That's new. But why are you here, really?"

"I told you," Kurt said. "You sounded like you really needed a friend."

"I have friends," Finn muttered. "You didn't have to fly all the way out here... you flew all the way out here? Just for me?"

"Yes, yes I did," Kurt said. "Canceled all my weekend plans. I'm crashing at your place, flying back Sunday morning. And I know you have friends, but it sounded like part of your problem was that they were all too busy to do this."

"This?"

"Take you out, get you drunk, and restrict themselves to just one appletini to last the whole night so they can be your designated driver. Which reminds me. Hand over the keys."

"Your drink is so gay," Finn snickered as he dropped his keys into Kurt's waiting hand.

"It is delicious," Kurt countered, picking up his glass and holding it out to Finn. "Sip."

"Don't wanna!"

"You're not going to catch the gay from a sip of my drink!" Kurt said. Years ago, this exchange might have been insulting between them, but now Finn and Kurt were both comfortable with themselves and each other enough to tease. "You love apples; you'll love this. Take a sip, if you think you're manly enough..."

"Ooh, now you're insulting my studliness!" Finn laughed as he accepted the glass from Kurt, taking a little sip. "That... mmm, actually..."

"Told you so," Kurt smirked, taking his drink back for a sip himself. "Delicious." He set the glass delicately back on the bar and twisted to look at Finn. "So. Girl problems. Who's the girl? Your relationship status never changed..."

Finn sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Rachel."

"Rachel? I thought you two broke up! Long-distance relationship not working and all..." Rachel had gone to New York, and Kurt saw her more often than Finn did. They weren't at the same school, but they apparently had a standing monthly date to see some show or another and occasionally turned up at the same parties.

"We did," Finn sighed. "And then we got back together. And then we broke up. And then we got back together. And on and on and on... and now we're broke up. And I'm not taking her back again."

"Good for you," Kurt said, twisting his fingers around the stem of his glass. "Very good for you. What happened?"

"She slept with Puck." Finn groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "She actually had sex with Puck! You know I've never even had sex with her? Hell, I've never had sex with anyone, except Santana that one time in high school. That's it! And, I mean, it was awesome and all, but it didn't feel... you know. Here." He pressed his hand to his chest, over his heart (Your heart's more to your left, Rachel told him, moving his hand). "So... so yeah. I wanted it to mean something when I had sex. So I said not until marriage. Or at least until I had a fiancée. And now I'm finding that even you are getting more girls than me, and Rachel's gone around fucking everything that moves, and god! I feel like such an idiot!"

"Finn..." Kurt's hand was on his back now, rubbing in soft circles. "You're not an idiot. Rachel's an idiot."

"And it was with Puck! He just can't keep his dick out of my girls! First Quinn, now Rachel..."

"Was she with you when they...?"

"No," Finn said, crossing his arms on the bar and sinking his head into the cradle. "But it was the day after we last broke up. I mean the day after. Because she had come down here for the weekend, and she said it wasn't working, and then she went to Puck, and then the next day she was back with me asking me to forgive her... she says she does this, you know? She 'so desperately needs positive attention that when she feels crummy, she seeks out guys for one-night stands.' And she was so sorry..." Finn grimaced into his arms. "Apparently, it's what you guys all do in New York. It started at this one party she went to, the third time we broke up this year. She got buzzed, started flirting with this cute guy at some Broadway party, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up with him in her bed, and she felt better about things. And so that became her solution for a break-up, go get fucked."

"Um." Kurt's hand stilled and then withdrew. "This... this 'cute guy' that started things? Was it... erm... at a Wicked party?"

"Yeah," Finn said, lifting his head. "Yeah, it was! Do you know him? Know his name or something, so I can break his face for fucking around with my girl?"

"I..." Kurt pressed his fingers just above his eyes, grimacing. "I may have... been that guy..."

Finn stared at Kurt. Kurt eventually turned his head to look back at Finn, his face in that blank neutral state that meant he was worried. "You," Finn said slowly, "had sex with Rachel. With my Rachel? YOU? You don't even like Rachel!"

"I like her!" Kurt protested. "Ish. Now that we don't see each other every day and aren't in direct competition for songs, I like her quite a bit more..."

"Enough to fuck her! You're gay, Kurt! And you slept with my girl!"

"You weren't together at the time!" Kurt retorted. "And it's not like either of you have been open about your on-again, off-again thing! I thought you two'd been apart for at least a month and a half!"

"She was still mine!"

Kurt opened his mouth, then shut it again and shook his head. "We aren't going to discuss this here, Finn. Not when you're drunk. Not in public."

"Gimme back my keys."

"No." Kurt met Finn's gaze evenly. "You're not driving anywhere. Here. We'll pay our bill and I'll take you home."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Finn shoved away from the bar, pressing through the crowd to stumble out the door.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. Kurt had gotten more sex from Rachel than Finn ever had. Not that Finn had wanted sex from her. He had been serious when he told Kurt he wanted to wait until marriage, no matter how stupid that sounded. But he had always thought... well, not always, but he had often thought that Rachel would be the one he married. They had been together all through high school (mostly through high school) and yeah, maybe they broke up every other month and got back together more times than the Cheerios won nationals, but still. Rachel and Finn were meant to be together. That was how the story went.

"Finn..." Kurt's soft voice cut into Finn's moping, and he turned to glare at his step brother. Kurt didn't fit in Ohio anymore. He had never really fit when he was a kid, and now that he was in college, he was a little sliver of New York City no matter what state he was in. Rachel was like that too. She still had some midwest charm, but for the most part, she was just as glamorous and upscale as Kurt these days. They belonged together. Not Finn and Rachel. Kurt and Rachel. "Come on, Finn. Let's get you home."

Somehow, Kurt managed to manhandle Finn back into his dorm room and sat him on the edge of his bed before dropping to his knees to unlace Finn's grubby trainers. Finn reached out, plucking Kurt's hat from his hair and setting his hand on the back of Kurt's head. "You knew you slept with Rachel."

Kurt nodded slowly, tugging Finn's right shoe off.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I..." Kurt pulled Finn's left shoe off before he closed his eyes and leaned to the side just enough to rest his head against Finn's knee. "I didn't want you to hate me. I told you, Finn. Alcohol. And lots of it. It was a mistake, and one of the few things I regret in my life. It happened once, and it meant nothing."

"You said she said she had a crush on you."

Kurt shrugged one shoulder. "Apparently, she's got a thing for guys in coveralls, and wanted to get in mine ever since she came by Dad's garage one day."

"But she was mine."

Kurt sighed, tipping his head back to look up at Finn. "Why?"

"What?"

"Why is she yours, Finn? Why do you cling to her?" Kurt put his hands on Finn's knees, pushing himself to his feet before reaching around Finn to clear off his bed. "She hurts you. Every time she breaks up with you, you take it that much harder. This was the worst breakup yet... probably because you initiated it. Because she slept with Puck."

"He doesn't even care about her."

"Do you?" Kurt asked, pulling back the blankets and nudging Finn until he moved beneath the covers. "She's yours, but do you really love her?"

"We're meant to be together." Finn sighed as Kurt tucked the blankets around him and then sat beside him, brushing cool fingers over Finn's forehead. "She's the stunning young engine, and I'm the hot male lead..."

"Ingénue," Kurt corrected, not unkindly. "But Finn... you're not."

"Course I'm hot..."

Kurt smiled a little, his hand sliding back to pet Finn's hair, long, soothing strokes that were easing the pounding already in his head. "Finn, you are the gorgeous boy next door to a t. But you aren't her hot male lead."

"I was in high school..."

"But we're not in high school anymore," Kurt said softly. "And real life doesn't work like that." He sighed, fingers rubbing circles into Finn's scalp. "Rachel... she's a diva, Finn. A star. She lives in this... this theatrical world in which she is the center of the universe. And that's... it's annoying at times, but it's okay. Because it's her life, and she should be the center of her own life. But... but she sees things in very dramatic, very clichéd ways. When we first saw Vocal Adrenaline, remember, she wanted to date you simply because it 'was expected'? According to her storyline, that's how things were supposed to go. But Finn... you don't see your life like a movie. You're not the 'hot male lead' in your own head. And because of that, because you haven't cast yourself as that, you can't met Rachel's expectations of it. That's not your fault, and it's not her fault. All that means is you two aren't as perfectly matched as you originally thought. And that's okay, Finn. That's growing up. Not many people marry their high school sweethearts, and even fewer have long, happy marriages with them. Just look at Mr. Schu and his first wife."

"But I love Rachel..."

Kurt eased himself down on the bed, lying beside Finn but over the covers, and wrapped his arm loosely around his step-brother. "I know," he murmured. "And I know she still loves you. But it's not... she's not the love you are looking for, and you're not the lead she wants. You love each other—I think—like I love Mercedes. She'll always mean the world to you, but if you tried to marry her... you'd just make each other miserable."

"You're saying I should dump her?"

Kurt paused a moment. "Are you on or off right now?"

"We're off."

"Then stay off." Kurt gave Finn a hug, closing his eyes. "It'll hurt, but stay off. Let her apologize to you... forgive her if you can, but don't try to start a romance up again. Just try for friendship. And I promise, a long-lasting friendship with Rachel will be so much more satisfying than a marriage."

Finn sighed, working his arms out of the blankets so he could hug Kurt back. "When did you get so wise?"

"I'm your older brother," Kurt said. "I've heard older siblings are supposed to be the wiser ones."

"You gonna stay the night?"

"Am I allowed?"

"Yeah..." Finn sighed, moving over on the bed to give Kurt a little more space. "Kurt?"

"Yes?" Kurt asked, as he pulled his boots off and slid beneath some (but not all) of Finn's blankets. They didn't share beds often, but when they did, Kurt never climbed beneath all the blankets with Finn. Finn wasn't sure if it was because Kurt was uncomfortable with things or if he just didn't want Finn to be uncomfortable.

"Thanks."

Kurt smiled, his fingers skimming down the side of Finn's face once before Kurt settled into place on the bed. "What else are brothers for?"