Fray

Summary: Taken from a prompt on the Glee Angst Meme: When Quinn would insult him and make him feel bad about himself, Finn found it easy to ignore it. It was obvious she was being mean. But when Rachel does it, it's always worded in a nice, helpful way that Finn doesn't even realize she's doing it until he finds himself dreading going to school because he knows he'll see her. It all comes out during one of his warm milk talks with Kurt, who is not happy with what Rachel's been doing.

Tl;dr: It was more okay when Quinn was mean because he knew it. It's worse when the words are doled out with a smile. Kurt is not pleased in the slightest.

Disclaimer: AHAHAHA YEAH NO.

AN: Yeah, okay. So I tend to avoid writing fics that could border bashing, but I tried my best to keep this to proper character. That's not to say that I don't think that Quinn or Rachel couldn't (or haven't) acted like this, I just try to keep the focus on what I think is important, meaning in this case Finn owning up to the fact that yeah, maybe something's not right here.

Finn knew that he wasn't very smart, at least not when it came to books.

According to Quinn, he wasn't particularly smart in regard to much of anything. Not when it came to her feelings, not when it came to 'their' baby, back before he knew it wasn't his. He couldn't count how many times she'd dug into him later about how stupid he'd been to even think that she could have gotten pregnant from the hot tub. It was okay, of course, for her to berate him about it once she didn't need him for anything.

He was stupid.

He was clumsy.

He was too tall, and he couldn't dance, and he was graceless.

Thing was, Quinn was mean. And Finn knew this.

He didn't like it, but he knew that she was mean. Mean, but hot. Hot enough and sweet enough that he thought that it made up for the meanness sometimes, and to him, it did. She wasn't a bad person but she knew what she wanted and she kind of didn't care who she ran over to get it, and that extended to Finn as well.

And the fact was, she didn't front with him. Finn knew that she was mean and she knew that he knew it so it could have been worse. He loved her but that was one thing she'd never lied about, so it was easier to brush off and just focus on the fact that she was hot and a cheerleader and his and people were jealous when they saw the two of them walking together.

Rachel was different.

She was cute and bouncy without the edge that Quinn had, and she was refreshing.

No, people might not have stared jealously, but what did that matter when he was holding hands with someone who really liked him and didn't have anything to gain from him?

Naturally, Finn didn't realize what it meant when she said,

Oh, don't be silly, Finn. You'll never pass that test without my help. I'll help you study so maybe you won't fail miserably.

Or when she said, You're lucky you're cute because otherwise, I don't know if I could stand to dance with someone who can't keep track of his own feet.

Kurt had just given up his battle with his lab report for physics and settled back to try and catch the elusive Kangaskhan in the Safari Zone when there was a sharp rap on his door.

"…come in?" he called with trepidation. If it was his father asking him if he was sure that he couldn't wear the tie with the peacocks in sunglasses to that meeting tomorrow, Kurt was going to kick something.

Preferably the wall, because the only other option wasn't a something but a someone, and that was a last resort.

The door opened and Finn popped his head in. Kurt couldn't control the instinctive raising of his eyebrows and the cock of his head because generally, Kurt was the one who went to him, not the other way around. For someone who seemed to hold few secrets, Finn was surprisingly close-mouthed.

"Hey, dude," Finn began, ignoring Kurt's immediate twitch at the word, "I, uh, brought some milk." Kurt could see his hands, and he held in each a steaming mug of what was undoubtedly warm milk. "Don't worry, Mom made it."

Oh my. Finn Hudson, notorious flincher at the mention of warm milk (he always drank it anyway) had brought it on his own volition. Kurt didn't know what, but Something Was Up. Pokémon would have to wait.

That Kangaskhan wasn't going anywhere anyway.

Setting aside his handheld, Kurt scooted back up against the headboard and beckoned his stepbrother closer, making a gesture to close the door.

"Thanks. Come over and sit down, and you can just tell me what's up."

Kurt didn't bother sugarcoating and when brown eyes met blue, Finn knew it too and obeyed, sidling over to drop himself onto the other end of the bed, handing Kurt one of the mugs. The shorter boy took a sip and sighed appreciatively.

"This is good. I'll have to give my compliments to Carole," he mused, before going serious. Finn looked…nervous. Or if not nervous, really, really unhappy. "What's going on?" Kurt asked, narrowing his eyes. "You don't look right."

Finn shrugged.

"I was just…well, I was wondering if you'd ever skipped school."

Kurt blinked.

"Once, yeah. In freshman year. I try to avoid it if at all possible. Why?"

Finn shifted.

"I was kind of thinking about…not going. Tomorrow. Maybe not the next day."

Kurt stilled and remained silent, favoring the approach of watching instead. Finn shifted and fidgeted uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Why don't you want to go to school?" he asked finally, trying to find a way to ask without sounding accusatory, "Is something going on? Are people giving you a hard time?" Immediately, Finn shook his head, fending off the inevitable ramble that, while flattering on his behalf, really wouldn't help anything.

"No. No one's messing with me. I just…don't want to go."

And if that wasn't the most unhelpful sentence ever, Kurt didn't know what. He said so.

"Look, I just want to know how to get away with it!" Finn protested, "I just don't want to go! That's all!"

"Somehow, Finn Hudson, I don't think so," Kurt's voice, while normally going into his upper register when upset had lowered to something more of a growl with just the slightest hint of threat, "Please don't play me for a fool. I'm not stupid, and neither are you." He emphasized. "You wouldn't ask me without a reason. You especially wouldn't ask me if you didn't want me on your case because we both know that Puckerman would give you skip tips in a heartbeat without giving half a damn." Kurt leaned back and folded his arms, straightening his spine to look at tall as humanly possible. "You came to talk to me because you want my help. You have it completely. Now, talk to me."

Finn squirmed and didn't say anything, glancing briefly for the door.

Blue eyes softened.

"Come on. If there's something bothering you, tell me."

Finally, the bulkier boy looked up at him.

"Does…does Blaine ever like…make you feel bad?" he asked finally. Kurt frowned.

"Not really," he replied without hesitation, "I mean, sometimes we disagree and argue a little, and maybe say things that hurt each other's feelings, but he doesn't usually make me feel bad, no. And if he does, he says he's sorry. And vice versa. I don't like hurting him."

"So he hasn't ever made you want to not go somewhere so that you wouldn't have to see him?" The words came low and staggered and dripped with something that Kurt was horrified to recognize as shame.

He froze.

"Finn…is this about Rachel? Do you want to skip school so that you don't have to see Rachel?"

Kurt knew the instant the words had hit home because Finn visibly flinched from the impact, and he shook himself out of the ice bath that had begun to radiate from his stomach to lean forward, eyes sparking.

"What's she done to you?"

If Finn's voice had been low and hurt and worried, Kurt's was just worried and angry. His stepbrother looked up and finally said,

"She's not mean to me or anything. Quinn was mean."

"Finn, she's said something to make you not want to see her at all, and you are the schmoopiest lovey-dovey marshmallow I've ever met. What. Did. She. Do?"

"She just…Kurt, she's not mean! Not like Quinn. I just…I don't feel good after I talk to her."

Kurt tried to calm himself down. Gone was the brief blaze of heat, his anger (he wasn't going to deny his temper) had lowered to a dangerous simmer. Flipping out wouldn't get anything out of his brother; it'd just make him not ever want to talk to him again and Kurt didn't want that at all. He made an effort to gentle his tone, even if he couldn't soften the words.

"Tell me what she's said to you."

"Well, it's like…she's so nice. But she makes me feel so stupid. Quinn called me stupid all the time but I never really felt like it because she kind of treated everyone like that. But Rachel's so nice to me and offers to help me study, but then she told me that I'm lucky to have her because I'd never pass any other way. And like… she says she loves me, and that I ought to be grateful because no one else would dance with me because I'm awful." Finn stared down at the blanket, hands clenching white-knuckled on the mug he held, "I just feel bad. Low. All the time, and I don't know what to do. I mean, she's not wrong. I am pretty dumb, and I can't dance, and-"

"Finish that, Finn, and I am going to say some words that will make your grandmother's head explode," Kurt interrupted. He'd listened as long as he could but couldn't stand it anymore, couldn't stand to hear the secondhand poison coming from his relatively optimistic brother's lips.

Brown eyes stared him down, shamefaced.

"What do I do?"

Kurt's insides clenched because Finn had whimpered at him and he didn't think he could take it.

"Listen to me, and listen good. You are not stupid. None of us are perfect, but no one has the right to make you feel like that. No one should make you feel that low, especially not someone you love." Kurt tried to imagine how he'd feel if those words had come from Blaine instead of Rachel, and his heart twisted unhappily. "No one has that right, and the people who you can give that right to will never take advantage of it. Because hurting you ought to hurt them too." And there was the rising pitch and Kurt found himself half-snarling his words.

Finn sat back, looking as if Kurt had just clobbered him with a stick.

"Are you mad?" he asked, finally.

"Mad? I'm furious. At you? No. Right now, I'm fighting the urge to drive over and strangle Rachel Berry with my bare hands and tell her dads to try again because they must have screwed up somewhere the first time. See this? I can't fake this." Kurt held up a hand that on second glance was shaking, "Finn, I'm furious. Please don't let her treat you like that."

"…aren't you friends?"

"I thought we were. But you've got to understand, you're family, and being friends with someone doesn't make what she does or says to you any less wrong, no matter who it's directed towards. Being friends doesn't negate the fact that the girl's an expert at hurting people. Sunshine and a crack house?" Kurt remembered as well, for a short moment, the look on Tina's face the day that she'd gotten her first solo and how, even though she'd kept it, she'd never been completely happy about it after Rachel had thrown her tantrum.

"What do I do?"

Finn was slumping again and staring at the door as if he would have given anything to escape and Kurt squeezed the bridge of his nose, feeling kind of helpless himself. He walked the delicate line between being preachy and wanting to keep what little diplomacy he might have left and to be honest, he wasn't sure what to do either.

"…I'll make a deal with you," he answered after a time. "I'll help you get out of going to school tomorrow, somehow. It might not be pretty and involve make-up jaundice and a Beatles wig, but I'll help you. And in exchange, when I get home, we're going to talk about this again. You should also talk to your mother about this, too. She loves you and she'll listen. This isn't good. You know it's not good, right?"

Kurt went silent and waited.

And waited.

"…yeah," Finn whispered, "It's not good."

For a few minutes, all either of them did was breathe. Kurt, recovering from the bombshell Finn had just dropped on him and Finn, trying to compose himself from doing the dropping. The shorter boy watched him in concern, before eventually clearing his throat and opening his arms.

"You need a hug?" he asked, realizing suddenly how awkward that might have sounded. Awkward or not, he didn't think that Finn noticed because not two seconds later he'd scrambled forward and flung his arms around Kurt's neck, his grip tight and trembling. Kurt hugged him back and squeezed, trying to put as much support into it as he could.

It wasn't over.

He knew it wasn't over.

"It'll be okay," he said lowly, "It's not okay at all right now, but it can be. You're not alone. We'll get you feeling better."

His only answer was a shuddering squeeze.

AN: AND IT'S DONE. Please leave a review if you enjoyed or hated this, because this isn't usually the kind of prompt I pick up, and I'd really appreciate the feedback whether it's positive or negative. Thanks much!