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Kurt speaks English just fine, barring the gaps left for slang and colloquialisms. He's starting to fill those in with Scott's movies, Jubilation's fashion magazine clippings, Jean's cassette tapes. Affectionate teasing aside, his new friends are very patient with him.
Written English is harder. He has to sound out the longer words, and it just draws more attention to him when he has to do it in class. Scott seems to have made it his personal mission to fix this, sitting next to Kurt and staring down anyone who gives him a weird look. After the cage match, it feels wrong to call him a guardian angel, but Scott flushes and fumbles with his words the one time Kurt says it out loud. The comparison sticks.
They do homework together a lot, usually in Scott's room. Kurt's roommate, Doug, speaks excellent German and doesn't mind the blue thing, but girls make him nervous. Scott and Jean don't have roommates, but Jean gets a lot of migraines so they usually leave her room as a retreat from noise instead of a gathering place.
Plus, Kurt likes Scott's room. He keeps it surprisingly neat and organized, there's always a bag of probably-contraband snacks under his bed, and it smells amazing, like someone washed the whole room with Scott's shampoo.
Tonight, Jean has already gone to bed. Telepathy training takes a lot out of her and Kurt's surprised she came over to study at all. Kurt's curled up in Scott's armchair, his tail holding his book open. Scott is on the bed, laying on his stomach and doodling something in his notebook.
Kurt pauses in the notes he's taking to shake out his hand. The muscles cramp quickly from lack of practice and the awkwardness of holding the pencil in hands it wasn't designed for.
"Somebody should get you a better pencil," Scott says, irritated. Kurt flinches a little before pulling himself back to reality. Scott isn't annoyed at the distraction, he's annoyed that Kurt has to deal with this. This is just more of Scott being Scott, refusing to pick his battles.
"It is alright, I will manage," Kurt replies, waving him off. Awkward writing utensils are hardly worth bringing up with the staff, who have done so much for him already.
Scott sighs and gestures for Kurt to come over. Kurt makes a soft noise of confusion but gets up off his chair, bringing his books.
"Ja?"
Scott sits up and pats the bed next to him. Kurt swallows and sits. Scott grabs Kurt's writing hand. He has warm, dry hands and his skin is faintly callused; Kurt is suddenly hyper-aware of the strangeness of his own fingers.
"Believe it or not, homework isn't supposed to hurt," Scott says, digging his thumbs into Kurt's palm. There's an ache to it, but a good one. Kurt's tail twitches a little without his input.
"It hurts Jean," Kurt says weakly, just to keep the conversation going. Positive physical contact still feels like a rare treat and his pulse is racing with the fear that Scott will realize how much this means to him and stop. "The headaches."
"Yeah, well, they're pushing her too far too," Scott says dismissively. "Neither of you should be hurting."
He says the second part softer, working at the soreness in Kurt's joints. The worry is as raw as Scott's self-expression usually gets, so Kurt doesn't prod. He nods, his chest tight with affection.
Scott doesn't push the conversation on. In the quiet, the gesture takes on another level of intimacy. Kurt feels over-warm and fluttery.
He's very pointedly not looking at Scott's face, so he doesn't see the kiss coming. At first, he doesn't even realize that's what it is. Scott tastes like the vanilla in the soda he'd been drinking and this close, Kurt can see his eyes are closed behind his glasses.
Scott starts to pull away and Kurt grabs him by the forearms. He can't remember any English words, and the noise he makes only loosely qualifies as German. Scott laughs, high and nervous, bordering on panic.
"Kurt, uh-- I don't speak German," He says. Kurt swallows twice before he can remember how to talk.
"Let me try again," He finally manages.
He closes his eyes for this one, but not before he sees Scott smile.