forget your troubles, happy days are here again / you better chase all your troubles away

[highf]

So here's what you missed on Glee:

After getting slushied in the face for years and dealing with Karofsky's bullying, Kurt's decided to take a few defense lessons from the Black Widow herself - ( "I... just wanted to say thank you, again, for letting me participate in this course, and how much I'm looking forward to future lessons. You kind of blew

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[burnwithus]

A party's the last place Katniss Everdeen expected to turn up, but if she's going to be honest, it's only because Kurt Hummel intruiges her. Or at least, that's what she tells herself. Only two weeks after the arrival of Buttercup, she's been accustoming herself to his presence, noting that he's always there with her in her bed at the end of the night, despite how much he used to dislike her. It's like she's the only thing he has left, and likewise.

She feeds him wild boar. He's gotten accustomed to it after a while, sticking to the idiom that could have been District 12's motto: meat is meat. It's easier to sleep when he's around. Almost like Prim's there with her again, someone soft and warm under thin blankets and the even thinner pad that amounted to a matress in their home at the Seam

[highf]

"Uh-uh."

The words cut through the air, sharp and dissonant, not especially loud compared to the rest of the music, but aimed directly at her. Kurt's sure that she'll hear. And if not, disapproval is written all of his face, if not a bit of incredulence; he certainly didn't expect for Katniss to find something that best suits her natural coloring and body type, but for her to show up in the very same clothes that she normally wears is, frankly, unacceptable. Tonight is a night for revelry, it's a night of enjoying oneself, and no matter how much Katniss may claim that she's more comfortable wearing clothes that would better suit a janitor, Kurt knows that there are certain types of enjoyment that can only be had at the slight discomfort of an outfit that varies from the regular.

"This is a black tie party, missy," Kurt says, not without his own fondness as he steps over, leaning against the wall. "Which means we are going to take you to the Compound, find you a dress, before coming back so that you can enjoy the cake. And you will

[burnwithus]

Comfort was the key word here. Well, that and practicality. Katniss knew of a whole other world, where people dressed themselves to look pretty, but as far as she was concerned, she didn't belong in it. So when Kurt comes over, wearing that disapproving look on his face when he takes in her clothes, it's almost as if a younger version of Cinna was standing right in front of her. Her old stylist had been brusque, but only to make her laugh. Get dressed, you worthless thing, he'd growled while throwing an outfit at her head and she'd laughed then, slipping out of her lips while she did as she was told.

It's like being transported back into the past, and for a moment Katniss stays stock still. She normally hates being bossed around, but here all she does is nod. It's probably foolish, to be attaching these meanings to people she just met. It will probably only lead to trouble. But there's a part of her that yearns for Cinna so much that she'll wear a dress if that means being able to feel connected with him even just a little bit

[highf]

"The fact that you recognize that I'd have you in heels in a heartbeat only seems to prove how dearly you need them, honey," Kurt remarks as he ushers her to her feet, lightly guides her back in the direction of the Compound as quickly as they can manage without standing out too much in the crowd. It isn't nearly as fun to unveil a Cinderella if one makes too much a ruckus going into it all, and besides, Kurt doesn't want to build up momentum and expections for what might only end up being a flop, if the clothes box doesn't accommodate the two of them. "I suppose we could go with a nice wedge, if the box feels like providing, but the heels would really accentuate the curve of your legs. Make even more obvious the fact that you clearly walk at least twice as much as most of us

[burnwithus]

Katniss knows that she's short. Stunted. Stubby, even. A general lack of nutritious food in her formative years had halted her growth, and even if there's more meat on her now than ever before, she knows that she won't ever fill out. It doesn't really matter to her now, all these tricks that people use to make them seem taller, more sophisticated, thinner. Once upon a time, in an elaborate fantasy that Cinna had weaved for her, she might have been tricked into thinking that she was beautiful, but that had been an obvious facade, in the end.

She powers through. That's all she does, normally, and Katniss weaves her way through the crowd and out the door when Kurt holds it open for her, hunching over with her hands stuffed into her baggy pants. "I don't know why I did," she answers honestly as usual, shrugging.

"...Happy Birthday."

[highf]

While Kurt would never want to mold anyone into the shape of a doll, one that lacks personality, there are little qualities to Katniss that he finds himself wanting to change. Wanting to alter. First, he reaches out for her shoulders, his thumbs gently kneading against her shoulder blades in an effort to improve her posture. Every motion that he takes is with care, with warning, because there's been little made more clear to Kurt than the fact that Katniss is more than a but shy when it comes to such things.

"You came because, somehow," he begins, satisfied enough with his efforts to again hold open the door for her once they've climbed the steps to the Compound entrance, "we've become something approximating friends. And when I say approximating, all I mean to say is that, well. I'm not sure if having friends is something you'd normally admit to. But. I'd say we're getting there."

[burnwithus]

He touches her. A year ago she would have punched him for it, not because of any innate dislike for him but because lashing out like a wounded animal was the only recourse available to Katniss. Because once you've been in the arena, fear is the only eventuality, the only consistent thing in your life. As it was, she manages not to do so.

It's a close run thing.

Katniss' back tenses, which does end up improving her posture, but probably not for the reasons that were expected.

"Trust me, you don't want to be friends with me," she warns, even as she approaches the clothes box, looking all worn and empty like it always does from this distance. "You just...remind me of someone." She doesn't say Cinna. She hasn't said his name in over a year to another living soul, although sometimes at night before she goes to bed she'll whisper the names of the dead under her breath. Don't forget.

Crouching down by the box, she pulls out something glittery and far too short, wrinkling her nose in disgust before tossing it to the floor.

[highf]

"Oh, it's a little late for that," Kurt replies, eying her back carefully before deciding to let that particular battle go for the time being. Baby steps, and all. He isn't about to fool himself into thinking that he can transform her into a pageant girl overnight, and any overly quick change would unnerve him at best. The last thing that he wants to do, as much as he admires the trade, is to have her act through all of this, trying to skirt the real concern that people feel for her (he has no doubt that he can't be the only one; bleeding hearts seem to exist quite often in the world). "Friendship isn't something that you embark on because you want or don't want to; it's something shared because of experiences and, in some cases, chemistry. I think circumstances were kind to ours

[burnwithus]

The dress seals it. Everything about it, from the vibrant color to all the flourishes of shape (that Katniss doesn't understand and yet still recognizes) screams of her ex-stylist's tastes and she reaches out to touch the dress after a long moment of silence, biting down hard on her bottom lip. Is it wrong to see other people - people she's loved - within completely different individuals? Is it as innocent as missing him, or is it insidious, like she's subconsciously trying to replace him? Katniss can't tell

[highf]

"Oh, it'll fit. I've made little nips and tucks to my clothes more often than I can count, and you're... about the size I was a couple of years ago, actually," Kurt remarks with a small smile, one incapable of being too glad for the memory of the fact. Still, he's capable of seeing all of their faces too clearly, the guys who'd push him into the lockers, who'd try to force him to use the girls' bathroom. Without the physical presence to stand tall, bullying becomes that much harder.

Not that there's really a need to discuss that right now.

But he can see her discomfort, and he knows not to press too hard. Sometimes, a prod in the right direction is all that one needs to realize a greater truth, a greater happiness. Too much, though, and it'll just send a person careening, balking.

"You don't have to wear it out there if you don't want," Kurt adds. "I think you'd look beautiful. Might even outshine Santana, and she'd be... pretty mad about that, admittedly. But you've got this, I don't know, this fire in you, and I wish you'd let it

[burnwithus]

I'm still betting on you, girl on fire.

Sometimes it felt like everybody had this delusion about the strength of her character, or the temperament of her personality that was reflected in a great many fire metaphors (ha). When in reality, it was more like she was a spark, long guttered out. Small in magnitude, even before that.

But this dress was the type of thing that would have boosted her spirits before, as shallow and pedantic as that sounded and as much as she would never admit it. Not because of the dress itself, but by the illusion that it created. Cinna would have told her that these things were therapeutic in their own right.

"I'll wear it," Katniss decides suddenly, never as level headed as she sets herself out to be. For Cinna. Because she's the master of utterly useless gestures. "But it's going to look stupid."

[highf]

With permission granted, Kurt shakes his head and starts to usher her to the side, slightly away from the box, where people might stumble across them any moment. Opening the door to the single-person bathroom, Kurt quickly waves her in, hoping that she doesn't have too much modesty to mind showing a bit of skin around Kurt. He's not interested in women anyway, not like that- but there are people who don't seem to get the message, and with Katniss being from a world so unlike his own, Kurt can't be sure. "Ridiculous," he breathes, shaking his head. "You're going to look fabulous, I can prove it to you. Here."

Taking a black shawl grabbed from the box, Kurt throws it over the mirror, not wanting her to see the transformation until it's done.

"If you need, I can turn around while you put on the dress first. Just pull it up to chest height, and if you need help with the zipper, I can get that much. I've got an emergency sewing kit with me, anyway, if we need to work on any last nips and tucks."