When Obvious Meets Oblivious
Nov. 27th, 2010 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleurdeliseebckpTitle: When Obvious Meets Oblivious
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fleurdelisee
Word Count: ~20,100
Rating: R
Pairing: Blaine/Kurt
POV: 3rd, Kurt-centric
Summary: The one where Blaine flirts with songs, Kurt is thick and Finn is scarred for life.
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
Spoilers: Furt and the songs from Special Education
Beta:xiexiegirl
Author Notes: Long author note will be long. I started this on Sunday and therefore had to edit most of the beginning after Furt smashed it to smithereens. It’s still AU-ish for the most part, although I tried to keep it as close to the canon as possible, with what we knew. Credits go toxiexiegirl for the ‘the fourth’ idea (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there… ) And now I really need to start revising for finals. Oh god.
Kurt couldn’t recall exactly what happened and why it happened. He was sitting next to Sam in the nurse’s office while the other glee guys were standing or sitting around the room. They all looked terrible.
“Thanks,” Kurt whispered, saying it again for the hundredth time in half an hour.
“Don’t mention it. Fucking bastards,” Finn muttered.
“It’s okay, he’s an idiot.”
“I don’t mean Karofsky. I mean the rest of the school who stood there without a word. What would have happened if we hadn’t walked you to your class? Just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you’re a punching bag.” Sam looked seriously pissed off, the eye he was not covering with ice dark and menacing. “I fucking hate them all.”
“Sam, drop it. It’s not a big deal,” Kurt said dully.
“It is a big deal, Kurt! It’s such a big deal that you don’t even realise how unfairly you are being treated because it’s all you know! Back in my old school, it wouldn’t have—not everyone is a raging homophobe, Kurt.”
Kurt could feel his eyes burning with held back tears but he couldn’t tell if they were because of what Sam was saying or because of the way all of the guys he thought were all a bit homophobic had defended him.
“What happened to my bag? I think I left it in the hallway,” Kurt asked, desperate to change the subject.
“Tina picked it up. She said she’d leave it in the choir room.”
Kurt nodded, thanking them again. They stayed in silence for a long time. The nurse was gone and the pack of ice Kurt was holding to his head was melting, causing cold water to run down the side of his head and down his shirt. He still had a metallic taste in his mouth from his split lip.
“Kurt? Your father is here,” Ms. Pillsbury softly said, walking in the room. An infinite sadness was filling her wide brown eyes. She reminded Kurt of his mother and it was definitely not the right time to think of her, not when he had to deal with the aftermath of being beat up by a football player.
He slipped off the bed, helped by Sam, and followed her to the principal’s office. He was not looking forward to the confrontation at all. He had a feeling he would end up the accused one. He almost wished the guys could come so they could testify that Karofsky was the ones who launched himself at Kurt without a motive.
Kurt left the office completely drained. He felt five hundred years old. No matter how satisfying it was to know that Karofsky had been expelled and that Ms. Sylvester was on his side, he couldn’t help but sense the things no one dared say out loud; that it was Kurt’s fault if he was gay and that he had brought it to himself. He was also completely terrified of what would happen to him when the football team learned they had lost a player. Finn, Puck, Mike and Sam would not be enough to stop the rest of the team.
“Let’s go get your bag, okay?” his father said with a protective hand on his shoulder. “I’ll get you home. You need to rest.”
Kurt nodded, dragging his feet down the hallway towards the choir room. He felt absolutely terrible to put such strain on his father’s fragile heart. It was a stress he did not need, to know that his son was being bullied to the point it got him a concussion and purple bruises.
He pushed open the door and everyone became quiet. The guys were back from the nurse’s office and their girlfriends were looking over them. Mercedes made a move to get up to hug him but Kurt shook his head, knowing she would understand his need to be left alone. Finn still looked absolutely enraged and so did Puck, to Kurt’s surprise. His best guess was that he might tease him relentlessly but he still had morals higher than the Neanderthal that jumped him. Kurt noticed how everyone was pale and looked at him like they cared. It made him feel a bit better to know that what happened to him mattered for at least a few people.
Kurt finally located his bag at the other end of the room, near someone’s feet. His eyes travelled up the grey dress pants to know whether or not it would be impolite to ignore the person keeping his bag. Grey pants led to navy blue blazer with a horrendous red border and Kurt’s breath caught in his throat when the overly big crest came into view.
“Blaine,” he choked out, crashing into the boy’s arms as soon as Blaine was up on his feet.
“Mercedes called me and I came as soon as I could.” Blaine was hugging him like he could break at any moment. He moved one hand to the back of Kurt’s neck to hold him closer when he started shaking.
Kurt didn’t care that the entire glee club was watching them; the tears he had been holding back for two hours finally got out and he buried his head in the crook of Blaine’s neck to muffle his sobs. He moved in even closer when Blaine kissed his cheek and whispered ‘oh, Kurt,’ in his ear.
“Let’s get you home,” Blaine said after a while, slowly untangling himself from Kurt’s tight embrace. He leaned down to grab Kurt’s bag and put it over his shoulder.
As Kurt was walking back to his father, who was still waiting in the doorway – he was too drained to feel even remotely embarrassed that his father saw him clinging to another boy – Blaine made a bee-line to shake all the guys’ hands to thank them.
“Thanks, man,” he said as he extended his hand to shake Sam’s. “Do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar.”
“Yeah. I was at Dalton before coming here. I’m Sam.”
“Thank you, Sam.”
Sam shrugged and smiled, giving Kurt the thumbs up before he left the room, his father’s arm wrapped around his shoulder and Blaine’s hand in his.
A week later, Kurt was driving with his father all the way to Westerville to sign the transfer papers. Sam might have had a thing or two to do with it, with the way he showered Kurt in pamphlets and flyers from Dalton Academy behind Rachel’s back. It was the readmission of Karofsky into the school by the school board that did it. Faced with this fact, Burt had agreed that it was their last option. Kurt’s panic attacks every morning before leaving for McKinley High were driving the both of them to the edge.
---
Kurt couldn’t decide whether he was happy or not that his nickname as soon as he started at Dalton was ‘Spy Kid’. It was also quite unexpected to realise everyone knew who he was the second he stepped in through the front doors of the academy on his first morning there. He would need to have a good talk with Blaine as soon as he located the boy among the hundreds of similarly dressed ones.
He saw a few familiar faces in the crowd and as many warm smiles and taps on his back with good luck wishes. Old habits die hard, though, and he always tensed whenever one of them came near him. He still had painful bruises reminding him – as if he needed a reminder – that the world was not full of open-minded, friendly people, however hard Dalton Academy tried to convince him of the opposite.
“Hey, good morning Spy Kid,” a voice said to his right as he was trying to find his locker.
“Okay, seriously, who the hell are you? You’re the seventh person to greet me this morning. Who told you about me?” He realised too late that he snapped at a complete stranger who was only trying to be nice.
“Bad night, huh? Dorm beds are brutal at first. You’ll get used to it. Hi, I’m Jake. I’m in the Warblers. Blaine told us to be nice with you and to make you feel welcome. Looks like were lockers neighbours!” The tall guy clapped his shoulder and Kurt winced, the shock reverberating in his head. “Oh, shit, sorry. Did I do something wrong?”
Kurt was about to tell him to get lost, that it was none of his business, but the look of concern on Jake’s face was a genuine one. He truly cared whether he had hurt Kurt or not.
“It’s just—Concussion. It still hurts when I’m not careful.”
A shadow passed on Jake’s face and his fists clenched at his sides. Kurt was pretty sure he heard him mutter ‘fucking bigots’ under his breath.
“I’m fine. Don’t—Seriously. It’s okay.”
“You’ll have to get used to people overprotecting you, Kurt.”
Kurt couldn’t help the grin that broke out on his face at the sound of Blaine’s voice. It was the first time he was seeing him since The Incident That Shall Not Be Named (as declared by Blaine over the phone four nights ago) and the sight of him made Kurt feel like a small flame had been lit in his heart.
Blaine wrapped him in a tight embrace for a brief moment, so brief that Kurt didn’t have the time to reciprocate before Blaine was at a safe distance from him again.
“Do you need help to find your classes? This place is a real labyrinth when you’re not used to it. Come on.”
Blaine put his arm around Kurt’s shoulder and steered him through the crowd. It took Kurt approximately two minutes to realise Blaine might well be the most popular kid in the school. Everyone seemed to know who he was. When questioned, Blaine brushed it off saying that it was what you got for being the star of the glee club. Kurt still had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that the Warblers were like rock stars at Dalton. It was a drastic contrast to see how being captain of the Warblers got you everyone’s friendship while being captain of New Directions got you slushied.
---
The week went by fast and Kurt talked to more people in five days than in his two years at McKinley. Blaine really had told every single one of the Warblers to befriend Kurt. He guessed it was part of his plan to give no choice to Kurt but to join the club. He exposed his theory to Mercedes over the phone and all she did was make fun of Kurt for complaining about having tens of cute boys greeting him wherever he went.
He had to hang up when someone knocked on his door. Kurt opened and found Blaine standing in the hallway, an unreadable smile on his face.
“Are you busy?”
“No, not really. I was trying to make this place look less like a white cube and more like—”
“Good! Come with me.”
Blaine took a grip of his hand and pulled him out of his room. Kurt ran behind him, trying to keep up with Blaine’s rhythm.
“Stay there,” Blaine ordered him once they were in what Kurt remembered to be the senior’s common room.
“Oh, please, not Teenage Dream again,” Kurt sighed, nonetheless curious to know what Blaine wanted him to see.
That is, until they started singing and Kurt recognised it as a mash-up of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths and I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Tricks. Kurt thought he would die of embarrassment right here and there because it was obvious that they were singing it to him, and everyone in the crowd knew it, too. He hadn’t predicted, though, that when they stopped, they would all fall on their knees in front of him and start begging him to join the club.
“Oh come on, I haven’t even been here a week!”
“Sectionals are in a month. We have no time to lose. Blaine told us you were reluctant about it and you’ve turned down every single one of us when we asked you to join. You gave us no choice but to put you in a situation that would make it impossible for you to refuse.”
“You guys are absolutely insane. You don’t even know if I’m good enough for you.”
If eyes rolling made a sound, Kurt would have been deafened in a second.
“My friend Sam sent me a video,” a guy Kurt was almost certain was named Andrew said.
“Sam Evans? What video?” Kurt was getting worried. He hadn’t performed a lot of songs since Sam had joined the club.
“Le Jazz Hot?”
Kurt stared at him, wanting nothing but to hide under the floorboards and die there because if there was one thing in his life he didn’t want a bunch of strangers to see, it was that. It would have been better if they had found a video of him as a Cheerio.
“So you have two options,” Blaine began, standing right in front of Kurt. “You join us, or this video goes viral.”
“Are you blackmailing me?!”
“If we have to, yes.” Blaine took a step forward to say the rest in Kurt’ ear. “I know why you’re reluctant and I understand it, but you know you’ll have fun with us.”
“Can I have a few days to think about it? Please?”
“You have two days,” David said sternly. “On Monday, the video goes viral.”
“I basically have no choice.”
“Not really, no. We checked in the school’s rules. We’re allowed to blackmail you as long as we don’t use physical coercion,” Jake said happily.
“Alright, alright! But you deal with Rachel Berry once she sees me with you guys at Sectionals.”
“Deal,” Blaine said, extending his hand to shake Kurt’s.
Kurt should have seen it coming. As soon as Blaine had a hold of his hand, he pulled him forward and Kurt found himself in the middle of a particularly violent group hug. In any other situation, Kurt would have been way happier to be hugged by twelve teenage boys. At that moment, though, he was still feeling like he had been forced into something that could possibly end up a catastrophe.
The feeling died down a little when they decided to go to BreadstiX (Kurt was a fool to think he would get away from that restaurant by living in another town) to celebrate their new member. He was a little bit suspicious when Wes told the waitress they had a reservation for thirteen people but decided to brush it off and play along.
Somehow, the conversation derived to what had happened to Kurt at some point around when they received their desserts. Kurt found out he was not the first one to transfer after a similar event, even if he was possibly the first student granted the authorisation to transfer in the middle of a term. There were five other guys in the club who had stories resembling Kurt’s. One of them was Blaine, as Kurt had suspected since the first day they met, but it was still painful to hear him tell what had happened.
“Listen,” Blaine said to Kurt before putting his left wrist close to his ear. He turned it a few times, which caused it to make a weird noise. “They broke it.”
Kurt pouted empathically and his eyes met Blaine’s. He found himself staring into them for a long time and he would have continued forever if Fred had not started to throw everything he could find at them, while many other guys made retching noises.
“You guys are a disgustingly cute couple,” Wes said, a smirk on his face.
“We’re not a couple!” they exclaimed at the same time.
The table erupted in snickers and sarcastic ‘yeah, right’s.
They stayed out late that night, hanging in the streets of downtown Westerville and teasing Blaine and Kurt about their non-existent relationship in between one of them bursting out into a song, soon to be joined by the rest of the club. Kurt couldn’t hide his smirk every time he compared this gang of high schoolers to the ones found in Lima. There’s was a definite lack of vandalising and too many show tunes to even compare.
They had to sneak back in way past curfew and almost all got caught – because seriously, whoever (Hugo) said they were fine with breaking the curfew was wrong. Thirteen guys trying to enter the same building at the same time could not finish well. Kurt got lucky, and so did Blaine, Wes, Jake and Alex, but the rest of the club was caught as they were about to enter their rooms. Kurt could thank Coach Sylvester for his ability to run up four stories without dying.
Kurt felt bad for the guys who got caught, since it meant detention for them on Monday, but at the same time he was too happy to let it bring him down. For the first time in his life he felt like he belonged in a group and there were no better feelings in the world.
Okay, there was one: receiving a ‘goodnight xxxx’ text from Blaine right as he was about to fall asleep.
---
Kurt was homesick. He was homesick, and grumpy, and in a bad mood and he wanted nothing more but to stay locked in his room until he died. The ecstatic feeling he had felt on Friday night had dissipated by Sunday morning and now he felt miserable. He had to catch up in every single one of his classes – because hey, when teachers were not busy trying to get the students to listen, they could actually get forward with teaching – and his dorm room depressed him and he missed his home.
At one, he sighed and pulled his laptop towards where he was lying on his bed to log on to Skype. Mercedes called him as soon as he appeared online.
“White boy, you better have a good excuse to explain why you didn’t call me like you said you would yesterday.” When he did not answered, did not even raise his head from how he was lying face down against his pillow, Mercedes’ voice softened. “Hey, Kurt, what’s wrong?”
“M’miserable,” he mumbled, lifting his head just enough so she would hear him. He sighed and pulled himself up on his elbows. “I’m homesick and I have so much studying to catch up on and this bed,” he stumped his fist against the mattress to emphasise his point, “sucks so my back hurts.”
“Come again? You’ve been accepted in possibly the greatest high school of the state where you’re surrounded by cute boys who are friendly to you, you haven’t been bullied once since you transferred, you see the boy of your dreams every day of the week and you have the nerve to complain?”
Kurt opened his mouth to reply but realised he had nothing to say so he shut it.
“Yeah, that’s better. Have you been on Facebook lately? There are like, thousands of things in which you’ve been tagged. Looks like you had a nice Friday night.”
“Hold on, I’ll check.”
Kurt logged in and saw that he had ten friend requests – apparently, The Warblers had a Facebook account – and had been tagged in pictures he didn’t even know David had taken. There were also two videos of them belting out Love Game and I Kissed a Girl – the first chapter of the war between Kurt and Blaine over who was better – and he felt a blush creep on his cheeks when Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt’s shoulder at the 'I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it' part of the song.
“Nice shade of red,” Mercedes commented and he dived head first in his pillow when he remembered his webcam was still on. “See? They all love you. I don’t see what you could possibly miss in Lima. Except me, of course.”
Kurt forced a tiny smile on his face but he didn’t even convince himself.
“Aw, Kurt. Don’t look like this. Hold on.”
She disappeared and came back a few seconds later, her phone in hands.
“What are you doing?”
“Texting Blaine so he comes to cheer you up. Or kick your ass. I’ll give him the choice. You know what I would do if I was there.”
“No, don’t—”
“And… sent. This moping around doesn’t suit you, Kurt. You’re being an idiot and you need someone to shake sense into you.” Mercedes put her phone to her webcam where Kurt saw ‘From Blaine: on my way.’
As if on cue, someone knocked on Kurt’s door. Before he could roll off his bed to open, Blaine had burst in and jumped on Kurt’s bed. He squirmed around a bit before lying behind Kurt and spooning him.
“Mercedes told me you were being miserable and needed a cuddle. I’m always up for cuddles. You just have to ask.”
With that, he nuzzled Kurt’s neck and stayed quiet, definitely oblivious to the thumping of Kurt’s heart, even though there was no chance he could not feel it, not with the way his hands were splayed over Kurt’s chest.
Kurt had hugged people before and he had made out on a couch with Brittany, but he had never spooned with someone he was head over heels in love with – even if he would go to his grave denying it. His heart was racing and he felt like every nerve of his body was on fire.
“Good afternoon, Blaine,” Mercedes finally said. Kurt felt Blaine jump against him.
“You could have told me you were still on Skype with her,” Blaine muttered in his ear.
“You didn’t exactly let me talk,” he muttered back before turning to face his computer. “Bye Mercedes.”
“Yeah, bye. I’ll leave you alone to make lots of gay babies with your boyfriend,” she said, a smirk on her face.
“We’re not dating!” Kurt and Blaine said at the same time before Kurt logged off.
“So, what’s up? Why are you feeling so sad?” Blaine asked softly, his breath tickling the back of Kurt’s neck.
Kurt shrugged, closing his eyes to better relish the moment.
“I’m homesick, I guess. It’s—I don’t know. It’s not a good day.”
“It’s okay, we all get those sometimes. But locking yourself up in you room won’t help. You’ll only feel more miserable. Especially since you have no roommate to keep you entertained.”
Kurt had had a roommate for two days; after that, the kid moved to New York and Kurt was left alone. It had led to Ian telling everyone how Kurt’s room was cursed and could only be occupied by one person at a time. This then had led to Ben telling everyone how his mom was really into esoteric stuff and that he knew how to purify a room. Kurt’s room still smelled of sage almost a week later.
“Do you want to join the guys? We were watching a movie in the commons.” Kurt shrugged again and Blaine held him closer. “I have a better idea, then. Come on, get up.”
Kurt whined but obliged. He snorted when he took in what Blaine was wearing.
“Thank god for the uniforms, huh,” he commented as he fished for a cardigan in his dresser.
“What? It’s not that bad,” Blaine said, looking down at his tight jeans and horrible brown wool sweater.
“My grandfather wears the same sweaters than you.”
“Well, my mom wears the same than you.”
Kurt quirked his eyebrow at that. “Fashion has no gender. Now, what is it you want to show me? Hurry up before I become lethargic again and refuse to move.”
Blaine smiled and took Kurt’s hand – seriously, he was not able to not hold his hand even for a second – and dragged him along.
“Don’t tell me you guys want to serenade me again, I swear to god I will transfer back to Lima if you do that,” Kurt complained as he followed Blaine through the tunnel linking the dorms to the rest of the school and then through the empty hallways of the main building.
“No, don’t worry. I want to show you something.”
They stopped in front of tall wooden doors. Blaine pushed them open and Kurt followed him into the auditorium. He looked like an old theatre, with high ceilings and chairs that looked too comfortable to be true.
“The acoustics here is unbelievable,” Blaine commented as they went up the central aisle.
Kurt looked up at the ceiling and saw it was ornate with wooden mouldings. The modern lights clashed against it. He climbed on the stage after Blaine and took a look at the room, perfectly picturing himself singing up on that stage. Next to him, Blaine was beaming.
“I knew you’d love it. It would have been my last argument to convince you to join the Warblers.”
Blaine’s voice sounded loudly through the room, confirming what he had said about the good acoustics.
“You’re right, the sound is awesome.”
“And it’s even better when we sing.”
“I believe you,” Kurt said, looking around himself some more. He missed the look that appeared on Blaine’s face.
“I can show you, if you want.”
“What?” Kurt asked distractedly.
Before he could register what was happening, Blaine was singing the first line of A Whole New World. Kurt stared at him with intent, trying to decide whether he was dreaming this or not. He decided it was not a dream when Blaine stroked his cheek as he sang ‘tell me princess’.
“Disney? Really?” he asked when Blaine continued with the song. He didn’t even answer him.
Blaine grabbed his hands and forced him to look at him as he continued with Aladdin’s part. Kurt knew that Jasmine’s was about to come and he knew Blaine was expecting him to sing it. Part of him wanted to, but he didn’t know which one would win; the cheesy one or the pragmatic one.
He could not resist. As soon as he joined in, Blaine let go of one of his hands and started moving them both around the stage as though they were travelling on a magic carpet. He was putting so much energy into it that Kurt suspected he had it planned out when he first showed up in Kurt’s room.
On the last verse, Blaine pulled Kurt close and wrapped his arms around his waist, putting them at a very close distance. They stayed that way, their foreheads pressed together, long after their harmony on the last line was over.
Blaine was the first one to move away, quickly and awkwardly.
“So, yeah. That’s it. Sounds good, huh?”
Kurt stood on the spot, still star-struck and unsure of what had happened. He was convinced they were about to kiss. They were so close; it had seemed like the next logical step.
“Y-yeah, it sounds good. Awesome.”
The rest of the day went better than the beginning. Blaine made sure Kurt was not left alone any second to avoid seeing him go back into his ‘emo mood’, as he nicknamed it. Blaine brought his guitar to Kurt’s room and strummed it for hours, singing songs like Fix You by Coldplay, Asleep by The Smiths and Something There from Beauty and the Beast.
When he was done writing his History paper, Kurt joined him and sang along and when Blaine began going through The Beatles’ catalogue, he ended up singing I Want To Hold Your Hand alone, Blaine looking at him with those eyes he had sometimes when he was looking at Kurt. They always made Kurt feel like he could read inside of him. It left Kurt with a strange feeling in his stomach, like something was off and that maybe he should be doing something, but what, he didn’t know. All he knew is that he would have been happy to spend the rest of his life watching Blaine play his guitar.
---
Kurt’s first rehearsal with The Warblers went down in History as one of those moments he would rather forget forever. They had prepared, behind his back, a medley of Lady Gaga songs to welcome him. It was going relatively well until Hugo tripped over his feet and sent the entire back row collapsing to the ground. The front one could have kept on singing to keep good figure but they were too busy laughing. This saved everyone the awkward moment when the twelve guys would have had to sing ‘I want to take a ride on your disco stick’ to Kurt. The rehearsal had to be called off when the teacher in charge, Mr. Wood, got tired of hearing them whimper about their bruises.
The second rehearsal went better. Jake and Alex had spent the past days teaching Kurt the choreography they were working on every time they could so he would not be too lost. He found out it was all for nothing, though, because Mr. Wood announced they were done with that song and would start moving on to their Sectionals and Christmas recital setlists. The Christmas part caught everyone’s attention more than Sectionals, to their teacher’s dismay.
“Come on, guys, we need to decide what to sing.”
“I thought we had agreed on Hey, Soul Sister?”
“Yes, Wes, but we still need a duet. Or a solo.”
“And I thought we had voted for Blaine to do it?”
“Yes,” Mr. Wood was getting impatient, “but he still hasn’t picked a song.”
“I have,” Blaine said. Mr. Wood looked at him with emphasis to get Blaine to say more.
“You sure you want to do this one, man?” David asked him.
“Yeah. I am.”
“Can I know what song it is?” Kurt questioned when it was obvious no one was going to name it.
“No, it’s a surprise,” Blaine said with a wink.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I—”
“He’s doing Thinking Of You. By Katy Perry,” Hugo called from the back of the choir room.
“You’re kidding.” Kurt was convinced, now.
“He’s not.” Blaine said after a moment in silent. “That’s the song I’m doing.”
Kurt rolled his eyes and chuckled.
“If it was possible to come out of the closet a second time, I’d say you’re more than ready for it.”
Blaine threw him the stress ball Mr. Wood used to shut them up.
---
Studying was very hard when Alex insisted to play music on his laptop. Kurt could have moved to the library but he was too comfortable in his armchair to move from the junior common room. It had started with soft classical music but quickly turned into anything Alex had in his music library. For a teenager, this boy listened to way too much adult rock for it to be normal. Kurt could live with Journey – hell, he could also sing along and dance with elaborate choreographies – and endure REO Speedwagon without protesting too much.
He lost it when a Michael Bublé song came on.
“Oh for heaven’s sake, skip this song. I can’t stand him,” he called from behind his French textbook.
“There it goes,” Wes said tiredly at the same time than Blaine loudly put down his Chemistry textbook.
“You don’t like Michael Bublé? How are we friends?”
“You do?”
“Of course I do! He’s awesome! He’s wonderful! He’s my future husband! We’re going to get married in Canada and it’s going to be awesome.” Kurt stared at him, trying to see whether Blaine was joking or not. “You don’t believe me? Let me prove to you how amazing he is. Alex, Save the Last Dance For Me.”
The opening notes of the song Kurt hated so much filled the room as Blaine got up and walked towards Kurt. He extended his arm and wiggled his eyebrows until Kurt, sighing, put down his textbook and put his hand in Blaine’s.
Immediately, Blaine pulled him to his feet and put Kurt’s hand on his shoulder. He grabbed his other one and put his own hand on Kurt’s waist. Before he knew it, Kurt was dancing around the room, led by Blaine who was way too good at it for a normal teenage boy. He was also singing the song along, loudly, his voice dropping to say certain part to Kurt only.
“Baby don't you know I love you so, can't you feel it when we touch? I will never, never let you go, I love you oh so much,” Blaine crooned in his ear and Kurt giggled.
Kurt had to agree, though, that he was going weak from the way Blaine spun them around or swayed their hips in time. On the last note, Blaine dipped him backwards, his face inches from Kurt’s. Kurt took in a sharp breath and his nose bumped against Blaine’s. It seemed to bring them back to reality because Blaine pulled him upwards and let go of him.
“See? This is why I love Michael Bublé.”
With that, he went back to studying Chemistry. Kurt stood on the spot, his eyes still on Blaine, his breath short.
It took David an hour to upload the video to Facebook. It was a record, even for him, considering that he spent said hour in a room with no computer sitting right next to Kurt. The comments ranged from ‘they’re like our gay mascots, only gayer and we’re not allowed to kick them’ from David to ‘white boys, get your shit together’ from Mercedes. Even Rachel had commented, something about her fathers and how Kurt could call them if he had questions. Wes said ‘that’s all they do all day. Please save us.’ When he saw that Brittany had commented with ‘more boy-kissing plz’, he logged off, not wanting to read anything more.
---
“We need to choose the Christmas songs and start working on them,” Mr. Wood announced in the middle of the glee club rehearsal.
He couldn’t have chosen a worse timing. They were all exhausted from practicing Hey, Soul Sister six times in a row. Kurt was convinced he would be able to do the choreography in his sleep. He was lying on the floor where he had collapsed after their sixth round and he did not intend to move unless the school was on fire.
Hugo mumbled something with his face against the floor, where he too had collapsed.
“Come again?”
Sighing, he turned his head to the side to speak more audibly. “Can’t we just do Jingle Bells Rock and O Christmas Tree and be done with it?”
“Well yes, we’ll do the same ones than every year, that’s a given, but I kind of want a duet,” Mr. Wood announced.
Kurt opened his eyes because something told him he was going to be forced into this duet.
“Why do I have a feeling you’ll ask Kurt and I?” Blaine said.
“Because you are right? There’s this one song, let me find it, hold on,” he continued, digging in his bag and retrieving a cd.
He put it on and a mellow song started. Kurt burst out laughing when he recognised it.
“Baby It’s Cold Outside? Really?”
“It’s a lovely song! What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s a duet between a man and a woman,” Kurt pointed out, knowing it was a lost cause but fighting anyway. There was something about singing a romantic duet with Blaine that made him feel awkward.
“This is in your range, Kurt. Blaine, you didn’t say anything. What do you think?”
Blaine shrugged and said, “yeah, cool.” It closed the argument, to Kurt’s dismay.
“Last thing I need to tell you and then you can go. New Directions invited us. Basically, they’d do one song, we’d do one song, and then we’d ‘socialise’.” He did the quotation marks in the air.
Kurt rolled his eyes and grunted.
“Do I have to go?” he asked before he could stop himself.
Completely ignoring him, Mr. Wood started listing all the songs they could possibly sing to ‘totally kick New Directions’ ass into oblivion’. Always the helpful one, Blaine would say ‘Teenage Dream!’ every time their teacher stopped talking to breathe.
“Blaine, stop it. We’re not doing Teenage Dream,” he finally snapped when Blaine started talking over him.
“Why not? Last time I sang it, I got us a new student and he’s totally awesome.”
Kurt did not see the hug coming. Well, it was not a hug. It was more like Blaine throwing himself across Kurt’s chest – because he was still lying on the floor, he was serious about not moving unless there were flames – and smothering him.
He had expected Blaine to move away after the socially acceptable duration of a friendly hug had passed but apparently, Blaine had decided Kurt was now his pillow. Kurt patted his hair and Blaine hummed, nuzzling Kurt’s chest.
Kurt must have missed something because next thing he knew, they were doing Teenage Dream to impress New Directions. It was not like he had been paying attention, either. It was kind of hard to stay focused on something when Blaine was tapping his fingers on Kurt’s chest to follow the rhythm of whichever song he had in his head. Kurt wasn’t sure but he was ready to bet on Bad Romance.
For some reason, Blaine followed Kurt around for the rest of the day. He sat next to him during dinner and tagged along until Kurt was standing in the doorway of his room.
“Hum, do you want to come in?” Kurt asked when it was obvious Blaine wanted nothing more than that.
“Okay!” he said cheerfully and pushed past Kurt, sitting on his bed and getting comfortable among his cushions. “Do you want to watch a movie? I know it’s Friday night and the guys are doing something but I’d prefer a quiet night in, no?”
Something was off but Kurt could not put his finger on it. That kept him busy throughout the movie, though. He was trying to figure out what could possibly cause Blaine to hold him closely as they watched Singing In The Rain on Kurt’s laptop.
When Blaine fell asleep against him, he felt his heart swell a little. He knew Blaine was exhausted with all the revision for midterms, the stress of being the main soloist of The Warblers and taking part in just about every club the school had to offer, but he never figured it was that bad. He turned off the movie and slumped a bit more against his cushions to be more comfortable under Blaine’s weight. At the same time, Blaine’s phone beeped and flashed on Kurt’s nightstand. Carefully, he reached for it to turn it off in case it would wake him up. His eyes caught on the text that had caused it to ring.
So, how’s the plan going? From: Wes.
Kurt stared at it for a long time. His fingers itched with repressed curiosity. He was a sucker for reading people’s text messages, especially when they obviously could explain what was off with his friend.
He unlocked the phone and immediately was in the conversation Blaine was having with Wes.
This is getting ridiculous. You two are the only ones not able to see it.
What are you talking about?
You know. I think they can see it on Mars.
What do you expect me to do?
Be bolder, man. He’s obviously oblivious to the entire planet.
Yeah, well, the clinging phase is on. Next, maybe a movie in his room? I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes.Eek. I’m a teenage girl.
Kurt put the phone down, even more confused. Of course, he had a theory, but he was not sure if he wanted to hold onto it, in case he was wrong. He would obviously love it if Blaine was—if Blaine wanted—but he’d rather not hope for it and then be deceived.
Next to him, Blaine snored softly and held onto Kurt tighter.
---
To say that Kurt was nervous was an understatement. He could feel his insides trying to crawl out of his body. His nervousness was only growing as they neared Lima. He was also slightly impressed at how easily The Warblers had booked a bus. He remembered the bake sale New Directions had had to do to afford going to Sectionals. Then again, The Warblers were rock stars. The school granted them whatever they wanted.
“There we are. William McKinley High School,” Mr. Wood announced. “You’re okay, Kurt?”
Kurt nodded stiffly, gripping Blaine’s hand. He knew it was stupid to be so nervous; Karofsky had been expelled and he had twelve guys willing to defend him if anyone decided to do anything but raise their pinkie to harm Kurt.
Walking through the doors in a Dalton uniform felt weird; that and not being a student there anymore. He glanced at his locker as they passed it, noticing how it was still vacant. He also saw the effect they had, the thirteen of them, walking down the crowded hallway in their uniform. The stares they got from the girls were hard to miss. For a moment, he truly felt like a rock star.
The feeling died down when the football team came into sight and among them, Karofsky. Unconsciously, Kurt slowed down his pace and moved closer to Blaine. The boy took a firm hold of Kurt’s hand and pulled him forward.
“Don’t let them see your fear. They’re like tyrannosaurus, they can smell it.”
Kurt made a sound halfway between a laugh and a whimper but he kept on walking. The glare Karofsky sent Kurt’s way was hard to ignore, but he did. He kept his head high and did not even glance at them.
The glee club was already in the auditorium when they arrived. Mr. Schue came towards them to shake Mr. Wood’s hand and greet them. Kurt barely had time to brace himself before Mercedes crushed him into a tight hug.
When she finally let go of him, the second wave of hugs arrived, led by Finn. Ever since he found out about Karofsky threatening his life, he had become some sort of freakishly tall human shield for Kurt. He would not let Kurt walk alone the entire week before he transferred.
Even Coach Sylvester was there, the same look of perpetual annoyance on her face. He thought he saw the hint of a smile, though, when he waved at her.
“Lookin’ good, Porcelain,” she said. “Nice harem you’ve got there.”
Kurt rolled his eyes and smiled. In his nervousness about going back to McKinley, he had forgotten that there were people he truly liked there.
“Guys, this is all very nice, but we have a show to prepare. We decided that New Directions would perform first, since we’re the ones who invited you,” Rachel said before quickly walking backstage.
Finn shrugged and followed her, soon imitated by the rest of the club. Kurt and the Warblers sat in the middle of the auditorium, filling a row. Blaine was still holding his hand and did through the entire performance. Kurt had to admit that he missed part of it because at some point, Blaine started rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of Kurt’s hand. Kurt gripped his hand tighter to signal that it was completely fine with him and he caught Blaine’s smile out of the corner of his eyes.
The Warblers took the stage and that was when Kurt’s nerves truly kicked in. He had not noticed when he was sitting down but now that he was up on the stage, he saw that a few students had filled the auditorium as well. He was almost sure he caught a flash of white and red on a large figure, but before he could check again, Blaine sent the silent countdown to the beginning of the song.
The performance was going well and he caught a few impressed looks from his friends, which gave him even more energy to continue. But of course, Blaine had to improvise – he had been warned by Wes and David that it might happen when Blaine got too much into the performance – and grab Kurt by the hand to twirl him in a way that reminded him of his stunt on Save The Last Dance For Me.
The part that made Kurt wish he could disappear under the stage was when Blaine pressed himself against Kurt’s back and wrapped his arms across his chest, holding his hands, as he sang the final lines of the song, swaying them sides to sides as he did so.
Kurt felt a wave of anger bubbling inside of him as they left the stage.
“What was that?” he snapped at Blaine as soon as they were out of earshot from the crowd.
“Wha—”
“You know Karofsky could be there and you know how they treat gays here and yet you had to—to handle me like we were back at Dalton!”
“Kurt, calm down. I don’t even know what you mean by handling you. We danced, just like we did back in the commons. There’s even a video of it on Facebook. That’s worse than what I just did, no? I don’t understand why you’re getting so worked up.”
“Of course you don’t. He was there, Blaine. I don’t know how come he’s back at McKinley or why he bothered to watch us perform, but he was there. The guy who threatened to kill me saw what you did on that stage. We’re not at Dalton right now. This school is fucking insane and who knows if he won’t be outside to beat us up and—”
“What does it change if we’re not at Dalton? You know that if this guy ever even got close to you, you would have something like fifteen guys lining up to defend you. That’s not it. You mean it’s okay to act all cuddly when you’re inside those walls but out in the world, it’s not? How am I supposed to feel? Are you ashamed of me, is that it? You’re ashamed of whatever it is I’m not even sure we have.”
“I—No! I’m not ashamed! I just don’t want to get the shit beaten out of me by a closeted homophobe.”
“You know, I used to think you were just a bit slow, or oblivious, but you’re not. I get it, now. You want nothing to do with me. You never did. I’m a good friend, that’s all. You could have told me so I didn’t spend the last month flirting with you and making a fool out of myself. Thanks a lot, Hummel.”
Tears burned Kurt’s eyes as he watched Blaine storming away. He slumped against the nearest wall and slid to the floor, hiding his face in his knees. He wanted nothing more than to go curl up in his room – his real room – and die there.
“Kurt?” he heard but didn’t bother look up. It was Finn. Kurt could imagine the way he was awkwardly standing in front of him, not sure of what to do. “Are you alright? We heard you and Blaine yelling and then he stormed off the stage. Mercedes was busy flirting with that guy, Wes, so I figured you were all alone here and were probably upset so I came.”
Kurt shrugged, finally looking up. He wiped his eyes and shrugged again, feeling more tears coming down his cheeks when Finn sat next to him and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.
“I screwed up everything,” he finally said, leaning into his step-brother. “I—I love Blaine, okay, and I just—I got scared when he grabbed me on stage and I yelled at him for all the wrong reasons and it turned out he likes me but now he doesn’t want anything to do with me because I’ve been an ass to him and he thinks I don’t like him,” Kurt blurted out in one breath in between sobs.
“You remember that time when Rachel was dating Jesse because I spent too much time getting over Quinn?” Finn asked, squeezing Kurt’s shoulder. “And then I would be all awkward and sing songs like Jessie’s Girl and Hello, I Love You and she would just continually turn me down? Well I think Blaine’s not mad at you. He’s mad at himself because he—he was hanging on a false hope and it upsets him to know that he won’t get what he wants. That’s how I felt. After a while, you get sick of running after someone who turns you down or does not respond to you.”
Kurt wiped his eyes and stared at Finn in disbelief. There was no way it was a speech Rachel had written for him yet it was way too insightful for the teenager to have come up with it alone.
“You’ve changed, Finn. You’re kind of awesome, now,” Kurt said with a laugh, a quiver in his voice from the crying.
“Well, you know, I’m always awesome. It’s just that I show it more when you’re not creeping me out by flirting with me.”
Kurt grunted and hid his face in his knees.
“Sorry about that. Seriously. Sorry. Gosh.”
“It’s okay, man. I know I’m irresistible,” Fin said through a chuckle. “Come on, now. Everyone wants to talk to you.”
“Give me a minute?”
“Take your time.”
Finn patted his back and left.
By the time he came back out on the stage, the word had gone through the Warblers that Kurt and Blaine had had a fall out and they all politely said nothing. Kurt was touched, but he was also worried that they would side with Blaine as soon as he talked to them.
It didn’t seem like it would be an issue, though, because they were too busy talking with the girls, while Puck, Artie, Mike and Sam looked on with wary eyes. Sam seemed too busy making sure Quinn was not running away with a prep boy to actually acknowledge that at least half of them were friends with him.
Blaine was nowhere to be found, and so was David. Kurt met Wes’ eyes and the boy shrugged, giving him a half smile before resuming his conversation with Mercedes.
“Didn’t he have a girlfriend?” Alex asked him.
“I thought so, too. He better not break Mercedes’ heart.”
“Speaking of breaking hearts—”
“No.”
Alex put up his hands in surrender and moved on to greet Sam. Kurt stayed behind, watching the scene but not wanting to participate. He was not in the mood to be cheerful and happy to see his friends.
“You were right. He was there. Coach Sylvester threw him out of the auditorium halfway through your performance. You were okay, by the way. The competition will be fair, this year.” Rachel had snuck out of the crowd to stand next to him.
“I’m going to take this as the highest compliment you will ever give us?”
“It is.”
She didn’t speak for a moment and Kurt appreciated it. He was not in the mood to deal with her.
“You know, last year, when Finn ignored me because he thought he was—you know. At some point I got mad at him because—”
“It’s okay Rachel. Finn gave me this talk already. Thanks, though.”
The ride back to Dalton was the longest Kurt ever lived. He was sitting next to Hugo because Blaine had asked to switched seats with him. If some of them did not know what had happened before, now they did. Kurt spent the two hours staring out of his window, listening to the soundtrack of Annie on his iPod to try and numb the pain, as well as drown out Blaine’s voice.
Part two.
Author:
fleurdeliseeWord Count: ~20,100
Rating: R
Pairing: Blaine/Kurt
POV: 3rd, Kurt-centric
Summary: The one where Blaine flirts with songs, Kurt is thick and Finn is scarred for life.
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
Spoilers: Furt and the songs from Special Education
Beta:
xiexiegirlAuthor Notes: Long author note will be long. I started this on Sunday and therefore had to edit most of the beginning after Furt smashed it to smithereens. It’s still AU-ish for the most part, although I tried to keep it as close to the canon as possible, with what we knew. Credits go to
xiexiegirl for the ‘the fourth’ idea (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there… ) And now I really need to start revising for finals. Oh god.Kurt couldn’t recall exactly what happened and why it happened. He was sitting next to Sam in the nurse’s office while the other glee guys were standing or sitting around the room. They all looked terrible.
“Thanks,” Kurt whispered, saying it again for the hundredth time in half an hour.
“Don’t mention it. Fucking bastards,” Finn muttered.
“It’s okay, he’s an idiot.”
“I don’t mean Karofsky. I mean the rest of the school who stood there without a word. What would have happened if we hadn’t walked you to your class? Just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you’re a punching bag.” Sam looked seriously pissed off, the eye he was not covering with ice dark and menacing. “I fucking hate them all.”
“Sam, drop it. It’s not a big deal,” Kurt said dully.
“It is a big deal, Kurt! It’s such a big deal that you don’t even realise how unfairly you are being treated because it’s all you know! Back in my old school, it wouldn’t have—not everyone is a raging homophobe, Kurt.”
Kurt could feel his eyes burning with held back tears but he couldn’t tell if they were because of what Sam was saying or because of the way all of the guys he thought were all a bit homophobic had defended him.
“What happened to my bag? I think I left it in the hallway,” Kurt asked, desperate to change the subject.
“Tina picked it up. She said she’d leave it in the choir room.”
Kurt nodded, thanking them again. They stayed in silence for a long time. The nurse was gone and the pack of ice Kurt was holding to his head was melting, causing cold water to run down the side of his head and down his shirt. He still had a metallic taste in his mouth from his split lip.
“Kurt? Your father is here,” Ms. Pillsbury softly said, walking in the room. An infinite sadness was filling her wide brown eyes. She reminded Kurt of his mother and it was definitely not the right time to think of her, not when he had to deal with the aftermath of being beat up by a football player.
He slipped off the bed, helped by Sam, and followed her to the principal’s office. He was not looking forward to the confrontation at all. He had a feeling he would end up the accused one. He almost wished the guys could come so they could testify that Karofsky was the ones who launched himself at Kurt without a motive.
Kurt left the office completely drained. He felt five hundred years old. No matter how satisfying it was to know that Karofsky had been expelled and that Ms. Sylvester was on his side, he couldn’t help but sense the things no one dared say out loud; that it was Kurt’s fault if he was gay and that he had brought it to himself. He was also completely terrified of what would happen to him when the football team learned they had lost a player. Finn, Puck, Mike and Sam would not be enough to stop the rest of the team.
“Let’s go get your bag, okay?” his father said with a protective hand on his shoulder. “I’ll get you home. You need to rest.”
Kurt nodded, dragging his feet down the hallway towards the choir room. He felt absolutely terrible to put such strain on his father’s fragile heart. It was a stress he did not need, to know that his son was being bullied to the point it got him a concussion and purple bruises.
He pushed open the door and everyone became quiet. The guys were back from the nurse’s office and their girlfriends were looking over them. Mercedes made a move to get up to hug him but Kurt shook his head, knowing she would understand his need to be left alone. Finn still looked absolutely enraged and so did Puck, to Kurt’s surprise. His best guess was that he might tease him relentlessly but he still had morals higher than the Neanderthal that jumped him. Kurt noticed how everyone was pale and looked at him like they cared. It made him feel a bit better to know that what happened to him mattered for at least a few people.
Kurt finally located his bag at the other end of the room, near someone’s feet. His eyes travelled up the grey dress pants to know whether or not it would be impolite to ignore the person keeping his bag. Grey pants led to navy blue blazer with a horrendous red border and Kurt’s breath caught in his throat when the overly big crest came into view.
“Blaine,” he choked out, crashing into the boy’s arms as soon as Blaine was up on his feet.
“Mercedes called me and I came as soon as I could.” Blaine was hugging him like he could break at any moment. He moved one hand to the back of Kurt’s neck to hold him closer when he started shaking.
Kurt didn’t care that the entire glee club was watching them; the tears he had been holding back for two hours finally got out and he buried his head in the crook of Blaine’s neck to muffle his sobs. He moved in even closer when Blaine kissed his cheek and whispered ‘oh, Kurt,’ in his ear.
“Let’s get you home,” Blaine said after a while, slowly untangling himself from Kurt’s tight embrace. He leaned down to grab Kurt’s bag and put it over his shoulder.
As Kurt was walking back to his father, who was still waiting in the doorway – he was too drained to feel even remotely embarrassed that his father saw him clinging to another boy – Blaine made a bee-line to shake all the guys’ hands to thank them.
“Thanks, man,” he said as he extended his hand to shake Sam’s. “Do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar.”
“Yeah. I was at Dalton before coming here. I’m Sam.”
“Thank you, Sam.”
Sam shrugged and smiled, giving Kurt the thumbs up before he left the room, his father’s arm wrapped around his shoulder and Blaine’s hand in his.
A week later, Kurt was driving with his father all the way to Westerville to sign the transfer papers. Sam might have had a thing or two to do with it, with the way he showered Kurt in pamphlets and flyers from Dalton Academy behind Rachel’s back. It was the readmission of Karofsky into the school by the school board that did it. Faced with this fact, Burt had agreed that it was their last option. Kurt’s panic attacks every morning before leaving for McKinley High were driving the both of them to the edge.
---
Kurt couldn’t decide whether he was happy or not that his nickname as soon as he started at Dalton was ‘Spy Kid’. It was also quite unexpected to realise everyone knew who he was the second he stepped in through the front doors of the academy on his first morning there. He would need to have a good talk with Blaine as soon as he located the boy among the hundreds of similarly dressed ones.
He saw a few familiar faces in the crowd and as many warm smiles and taps on his back with good luck wishes. Old habits die hard, though, and he always tensed whenever one of them came near him. He still had painful bruises reminding him – as if he needed a reminder – that the world was not full of open-minded, friendly people, however hard Dalton Academy tried to convince him of the opposite.
“Hey, good morning Spy Kid,” a voice said to his right as he was trying to find his locker.
“Okay, seriously, who the hell are you? You’re the seventh person to greet me this morning. Who told you about me?” He realised too late that he snapped at a complete stranger who was only trying to be nice.
“Bad night, huh? Dorm beds are brutal at first. You’ll get used to it. Hi, I’m Jake. I’m in the Warblers. Blaine told us to be nice with you and to make you feel welcome. Looks like were lockers neighbours!” The tall guy clapped his shoulder and Kurt winced, the shock reverberating in his head. “Oh, shit, sorry. Did I do something wrong?”
Kurt was about to tell him to get lost, that it was none of his business, but the look of concern on Jake’s face was a genuine one. He truly cared whether he had hurt Kurt or not.
“It’s just—Concussion. It still hurts when I’m not careful.”
A shadow passed on Jake’s face and his fists clenched at his sides. Kurt was pretty sure he heard him mutter ‘fucking bigots’ under his breath.
“I’m fine. Don’t—Seriously. It’s okay.”
“You’ll have to get used to people overprotecting you, Kurt.”
Kurt couldn’t help the grin that broke out on his face at the sound of Blaine’s voice. It was the first time he was seeing him since The Incident That Shall Not Be Named (as declared by Blaine over the phone four nights ago) and the sight of him made Kurt feel like a small flame had been lit in his heart.
Blaine wrapped him in a tight embrace for a brief moment, so brief that Kurt didn’t have the time to reciprocate before Blaine was at a safe distance from him again.
“Do you need help to find your classes? This place is a real labyrinth when you’re not used to it. Come on.”
Blaine put his arm around Kurt’s shoulder and steered him through the crowd. It took Kurt approximately two minutes to realise Blaine might well be the most popular kid in the school. Everyone seemed to know who he was. When questioned, Blaine brushed it off saying that it was what you got for being the star of the glee club. Kurt still had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that the Warblers were like rock stars at Dalton. It was a drastic contrast to see how being captain of the Warblers got you everyone’s friendship while being captain of New Directions got you slushied.
---
The week went by fast and Kurt talked to more people in five days than in his two years at McKinley. Blaine really had told every single one of the Warblers to befriend Kurt. He guessed it was part of his plan to give no choice to Kurt but to join the club. He exposed his theory to Mercedes over the phone and all she did was make fun of Kurt for complaining about having tens of cute boys greeting him wherever he went.
He had to hang up when someone knocked on his door. Kurt opened and found Blaine standing in the hallway, an unreadable smile on his face.
“Are you busy?”
“No, not really. I was trying to make this place look less like a white cube and more like—”
“Good! Come with me.”
Blaine took a grip of his hand and pulled him out of his room. Kurt ran behind him, trying to keep up with Blaine’s rhythm.
“Stay there,” Blaine ordered him once they were in what Kurt remembered to be the senior’s common room.
“Oh, please, not Teenage Dream again,” Kurt sighed, nonetheless curious to know what Blaine wanted him to see.
That is, until they started singing and Kurt recognised it as a mash-up of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths and I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Tricks. Kurt thought he would die of embarrassment right here and there because it was obvious that they were singing it to him, and everyone in the crowd knew it, too. He hadn’t predicted, though, that when they stopped, they would all fall on their knees in front of him and start begging him to join the club.
“Oh come on, I haven’t even been here a week!”
“Sectionals are in a month. We have no time to lose. Blaine told us you were reluctant about it and you’ve turned down every single one of us when we asked you to join. You gave us no choice but to put you in a situation that would make it impossible for you to refuse.”
“You guys are absolutely insane. You don’t even know if I’m good enough for you.”
If eyes rolling made a sound, Kurt would have been deafened in a second.
“My friend Sam sent me a video,” a guy Kurt was almost certain was named Andrew said.
“Sam Evans? What video?” Kurt was getting worried. He hadn’t performed a lot of songs since Sam had joined the club.
“Le Jazz Hot?”
Kurt stared at him, wanting nothing but to hide under the floorboards and die there because if there was one thing in his life he didn’t want a bunch of strangers to see, it was that. It would have been better if they had found a video of him as a Cheerio.
“So you have two options,” Blaine began, standing right in front of Kurt. “You join us, or this video goes viral.”
“Are you blackmailing me?!”
“If we have to, yes.” Blaine took a step forward to say the rest in Kurt’ ear. “I know why you’re reluctant and I understand it, but you know you’ll have fun with us.”
“Can I have a few days to think about it? Please?”
“You have two days,” David said sternly. “On Monday, the video goes viral.”
“I basically have no choice.”
“Not really, no. We checked in the school’s rules. We’re allowed to blackmail you as long as we don’t use physical coercion,” Jake said happily.
“Alright, alright! But you deal with Rachel Berry once she sees me with you guys at Sectionals.”
“Deal,” Blaine said, extending his hand to shake Kurt’s.
Kurt should have seen it coming. As soon as Blaine had a hold of his hand, he pulled him forward and Kurt found himself in the middle of a particularly violent group hug. In any other situation, Kurt would have been way happier to be hugged by twelve teenage boys. At that moment, though, he was still feeling like he had been forced into something that could possibly end up a catastrophe.
The feeling died down a little when they decided to go to BreadstiX (Kurt was a fool to think he would get away from that restaurant by living in another town) to celebrate their new member. He was a little bit suspicious when Wes told the waitress they had a reservation for thirteen people but decided to brush it off and play along.
Somehow, the conversation derived to what had happened to Kurt at some point around when they received their desserts. Kurt found out he was not the first one to transfer after a similar event, even if he was possibly the first student granted the authorisation to transfer in the middle of a term. There were five other guys in the club who had stories resembling Kurt’s. One of them was Blaine, as Kurt had suspected since the first day they met, but it was still painful to hear him tell what had happened.
“Listen,” Blaine said to Kurt before putting his left wrist close to his ear. He turned it a few times, which caused it to make a weird noise. “They broke it.”
Kurt pouted empathically and his eyes met Blaine’s. He found himself staring into them for a long time and he would have continued forever if Fred had not started to throw everything he could find at them, while many other guys made retching noises.
“You guys are a disgustingly cute couple,” Wes said, a smirk on his face.
“We’re not a couple!” they exclaimed at the same time.
The table erupted in snickers and sarcastic ‘yeah, right’s.
They stayed out late that night, hanging in the streets of downtown Westerville and teasing Blaine and Kurt about their non-existent relationship in between one of them bursting out into a song, soon to be joined by the rest of the club. Kurt couldn’t hide his smirk every time he compared this gang of high schoolers to the ones found in Lima. There’s was a definite lack of vandalising and too many show tunes to even compare.
They had to sneak back in way past curfew and almost all got caught – because seriously, whoever (Hugo) said they were fine with breaking the curfew was wrong. Thirteen guys trying to enter the same building at the same time could not finish well. Kurt got lucky, and so did Blaine, Wes, Jake and Alex, but the rest of the club was caught as they were about to enter their rooms. Kurt could thank Coach Sylvester for his ability to run up four stories without dying.
Kurt felt bad for the guys who got caught, since it meant detention for them on Monday, but at the same time he was too happy to let it bring him down. For the first time in his life he felt like he belonged in a group and there were no better feelings in the world.
Okay, there was one: receiving a ‘goodnight xxxx’ text from Blaine right as he was about to fall asleep.
---
Kurt was homesick. He was homesick, and grumpy, and in a bad mood and he wanted nothing more but to stay locked in his room until he died. The ecstatic feeling he had felt on Friday night had dissipated by Sunday morning and now he felt miserable. He had to catch up in every single one of his classes – because hey, when teachers were not busy trying to get the students to listen, they could actually get forward with teaching – and his dorm room depressed him and he missed his home.
At one, he sighed and pulled his laptop towards where he was lying on his bed to log on to Skype. Mercedes called him as soon as he appeared online.
“White boy, you better have a good excuse to explain why you didn’t call me like you said you would yesterday.” When he did not answered, did not even raise his head from how he was lying face down against his pillow, Mercedes’ voice softened. “Hey, Kurt, what’s wrong?”
“M’miserable,” he mumbled, lifting his head just enough so she would hear him. He sighed and pulled himself up on his elbows. “I’m homesick and I have so much studying to catch up on and this bed,” he stumped his fist against the mattress to emphasise his point, “sucks so my back hurts.”
“Come again? You’ve been accepted in possibly the greatest high school of the state where you’re surrounded by cute boys who are friendly to you, you haven’t been bullied once since you transferred, you see the boy of your dreams every day of the week and you have the nerve to complain?”
Kurt opened his mouth to reply but realised he had nothing to say so he shut it.
“Yeah, that’s better. Have you been on Facebook lately? There are like, thousands of things in which you’ve been tagged. Looks like you had a nice Friday night.”
“Hold on, I’ll check.”
Kurt logged in and saw that he had ten friend requests – apparently, The Warblers had a Facebook account – and had been tagged in pictures he didn’t even know David had taken. There were also two videos of them belting out Love Game and I Kissed a Girl – the first chapter of the war between Kurt and Blaine over who was better – and he felt a blush creep on his cheeks when Blaine wrapped his arm around Kurt’s shoulder at the 'I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it' part of the song.
“Nice shade of red,” Mercedes commented and he dived head first in his pillow when he remembered his webcam was still on. “See? They all love you. I don’t see what you could possibly miss in Lima. Except me, of course.”
Kurt forced a tiny smile on his face but he didn’t even convince himself.
“Aw, Kurt. Don’t look like this. Hold on.”
She disappeared and came back a few seconds later, her phone in hands.
“What are you doing?”
“Texting Blaine so he comes to cheer you up. Or kick your ass. I’ll give him the choice. You know what I would do if I was there.”
“No, don’t—”
“And… sent. This moping around doesn’t suit you, Kurt. You’re being an idiot and you need someone to shake sense into you.” Mercedes put her phone to her webcam where Kurt saw ‘From Blaine: on my way.’
As if on cue, someone knocked on Kurt’s door. Before he could roll off his bed to open, Blaine had burst in and jumped on Kurt’s bed. He squirmed around a bit before lying behind Kurt and spooning him.
“Mercedes told me you were being miserable and needed a cuddle. I’m always up for cuddles. You just have to ask.”
With that, he nuzzled Kurt’s neck and stayed quiet, definitely oblivious to the thumping of Kurt’s heart, even though there was no chance he could not feel it, not with the way his hands were splayed over Kurt’s chest.
Kurt had hugged people before and he had made out on a couch with Brittany, but he had never spooned with someone he was head over heels in love with – even if he would go to his grave denying it. His heart was racing and he felt like every nerve of his body was on fire.
“Good afternoon, Blaine,” Mercedes finally said. Kurt felt Blaine jump against him.
“You could have told me you were still on Skype with her,” Blaine muttered in his ear.
“You didn’t exactly let me talk,” he muttered back before turning to face his computer. “Bye Mercedes.”
“Yeah, bye. I’ll leave you alone to make lots of gay babies with your boyfriend,” she said, a smirk on her face.
“We’re not dating!” Kurt and Blaine said at the same time before Kurt logged off.
“So, what’s up? Why are you feeling so sad?” Blaine asked softly, his breath tickling the back of Kurt’s neck.
Kurt shrugged, closing his eyes to better relish the moment.
“I’m homesick, I guess. It’s—I don’t know. It’s not a good day.”
“It’s okay, we all get those sometimes. But locking yourself up in you room won’t help. You’ll only feel more miserable. Especially since you have no roommate to keep you entertained.”
Kurt had had a roommate for two days; after that, the kid moved to New York and Kurt was left alone. It had led to Ian telling everyone how Kurt’s room was cursed and could only be occupied by one person at a time. This then had led to Ben telling everyone how his mom was really into esoteric stuff and that he knew how to purify a room. Kurt’s room still smelled of sage almost a week later.
“Do you want to join the guys? We were watching a movie in the commons.” Kurt shrugged again and Blaine held him closer. “I have a better idea, then. Come on, get up.”
Kurt whined but obliged. He snorted when he took in what Blaine was wearing.
“Thank god for the uniforms, huh,” he commented as he fished for a cardigan in his dresser.
“What? It’s not that bad,” Blaine said, looking down at his tight jeans and horrible brown wool sweater.
“My grandfather wears the same sweaters than you.”
“Well, my mom wears the same than you.”
Kurt quirked his eyebrow at that. “Fashion has no gender. Now, what is it you want to show me? Hurry up before I become lethargic again and refuse to move.”
Blaine smiled and took Kurt’s hand – seriously, he was not able to not hold his hand even for a second – and dragged him along.
“Don’t tell me you guys want to serenade me again, I swear to god I will transfer back to Lima if you do that,” Kurt complained as he followed Blaine through the tunnel linking the dorms to the rest of the school and then through the empty hallways of the main building.
“No, don’t worry. I want to show you something.”
They stopped in front of tall wooden doors. Blaine pushed them open and Kurt followed him into the auditorium. He looked like an old theatre, with high ceilings and chairs that looked too comfortable to be true.
“The acoustics here is unbelievable,” Blaine commented as they went up the central aisle.
Kurt looked up at the ceiling and saw it was ornate with wooden mouldings. The modern lights clashed against it. He climbed on the stage after Blaine and took a look at the room, perfectly picturing himself singing up on that stage. Next to him, Blaine was beaming.
“I knew you’d love it. It would have been my last argument to convince you to join the Warblers.”
Blaine’s voice sounded loudly through the room, confirming what he had said about the good acoustics.
“You’re right, the sound is awesome.”
“And it’s even better when we sing.”
“I believe you,” Kurt said, looking around himself some more. He missed the look that appeared on Blaine’s face.
“I can show you, if you want.”
“What?” Kurt asked distractedly.
Before he could register what was happening, Blaine was singing the first line of A Whole New World. Kurt stared at him with intent, trying to decide whether he was dreaming this or not. He decided it was not a dream when Blaine stroked his cheek as he sang ‘tell me princess’.
“Disney? Really?” he asked when Blaine continued with the song. He didn’t even answer him.
Blaine grabbed his hands and forced him to look at him as he continued with Aladdin’s part. Kurt knew that Jasmine’s was about to come and he knew Blaine was expecting him to sing it. Part of him wanted to, but he didn’t know which one would win; the cheesy one or the pragmatic one.
He could not resist. As soon as he joined in, Blaine let go of one of his hands and started moving them both around the stage as though they were travelling on a magic carpet. He was putting so much energy into it that Kurt suspected he had it planned out when he first showed up in Kurt’s room.
On the last verse, Blaine pulled Kurt close and wrapped his arms around his waist, putting them at a very close distance. They stayed that way, their foreheads pressed together, long after their harmony on the last line was over.
Blaine was the first one to move away, quickly and awkwardly.
“So, yeah. That’s it. Sounds good, huh?”
Kurt stood on the spot, still star-struck and unsure of what had happened. He was convinced they were about to kiss. They were so close; it had seemed like the next logical step.
“Y-yeah, it sounds good. Awesome.”
The rest of the day went better than the beginning. Blaine made sure Kurt was not left alone any second to avoid seeing him go back into his ‘emo mood’, as he nicknamed it. Blaine brought his guitar to Kurt’s room and strummed it for hours, singing songs like Fix You by Coldplay, Asleep by The Smiths and Something There from Beauty and the Beast.
When he was done writing his History paper, Kurt joined him and sang along and when Blaine began going through The Beatles’ catalogue, he ended up singing I Want To Hold Your Hand alone, Blaine looking at him with those eyes he had sometimes when he was looking at Kurt. They always made Kurt feel like he could read inside of him. It left Kurt with a strange feeling in his stomach, like something was off and that maybe he should be doing something, but what, he didn’t know. All he knew is that he would have been happy to spend the rest of his life watching Blaine play his guitar.
---
Kurt’s first rehearsal with The Warblers went down in History as one of those moments he would rather forget forever. They had prepared, behind his back, a medley of Lady Gaga songs to welcome him. It was going relatively well until Hugo tripped over his feet and sent the entire back row collapsing to the ground. The front one could have kept on singing to keep good figure but they were too busy laughing. This saved everyone the awkward moment when the twelve guys would have had to sing ‘I want to take a ride on your disco stick’ to Kurt. The rehearsal had to be called off when the teacher in charge, Mr. Wood, got tired of hearing them whimper about their bruises.
The second rehearsal went better. Jake and Alex had spent the past days teaching Kurt the choreography they were working on every time they could so he would not be too lost. He found out it was all for nothing, though, because Mr. Wood announced they were done with that song and would start moving on to their Sectionals and Christmas recital setlists. The Christmas part caught everyone’s attention more than Sectionals, to their teacher’s dismay.
“Come on, guys, we need to decide what to sing.”
“I thought we had agreed on Hey, Soul Sister?”
“Yes, Wes, but we still need a duet. Or a solo.”
“And I thought we had voted for Blaine to do it?”
“Yes,” Mr. Wood was getting impatient, “but he still hasn’t picked a song.”
“I have,” Blaine said. Mr. Wood looked at him with emphasis to get Blaine to say more.
“You sure you want to do this one, man?” David asked him.
“Yeah. I am.”
“Can I know what song it is?” Kurt questioned when it was obvious no one was going to name it.
“No, it’s a surprise,” Blaine said with a wink.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I—”
“He’s doing Thinking Of You. By Katy Perry,” Hugo called from the back of the choir room.
“You’re kidding.” Kurt was convinced, now.
“He’s not.” Blaine said after a moment in silent. “That’s the song I’m doing.”
Kurt rolled his eyes and chuckled.
“If it was possible to come out of the closet a second time, I’d say you’re more than ready for it.”
Blaine threw him the stress ball Mr. Wood used to shut them up.
---
Studying was very hard when Alex insisted to play music on his laptop. Kurt could have moved to the library but he was too comfortable in his armchair to move from the junior common room. It had started with soft classical music but quickly turned into anything Alex had in his music library. For a teenager, this boy listened to way too much adult rock for it to be normal. Kurt could live with Journey – hell, he could also sing along and dance with elaborate choreographies – and endure REO Speedwagon without protesting too much.
He lost it when a Michael Bublé song came on.
“Oh for heaven’s sake, skip this song. I can’t stand him,” he called from behind his French textbook.
“There it goes,” Wes said tiredly at the same time than Blaine loudly put down his Chemistry textbook.
“You don’t like Michael Bublé? How are we friends?”
“You do?”
“Of course I do! He’s awesome! He’s wonderful! He’s my future husband! We’re going to get married in Canada and it’s going to be awesome.” Kurt stared at him, trying to see whether Blaine was joking or not. “You don’t believe me? Let me prove to you how amazing he is. Alex, Save the Last Dance For Me.”
The opening notes of the song Kurt hated so much filled the room as Blaine got up and walked towards Kurt. He extended his arm and wiggled his eyebrows until Kurt, sighing, put down his textbook and put his hand in Blaine’s.
Immediately, Blaine pulled him to his feet and put Kurt’s hand on his shoulder. He grabbed his other one and put his own hand on Kurt’s waist. Before he knew it, Kurt was dancing around the room, led by Blaine who was way too good at it for a normal teenage boy. He was also singing the song along, loudly, his voice dropping to say certain part to Kurt only.
“Baby don't you know I love you so, can't you feel it when we touch? I will never, never let you go, I love you oh so much,” Blaine crooned in his ear and Kurt giggled.
Kurt had to agree, though, that he was going weak from the way Blaine spun them around or swayed their hips in time. On the last note, Blaine dipped him backwards, his face inches from Kurt’s. Kurt took in a sharp breath and his nose bumped against Blaine’s. It seemed to bring them back to reality because Blaine pulled him upwards and let go of him.
“See? This is why I love Michael Bublé.”
With that, he went back to studying Chemistry. Kurt stood on the spot, his eyes still on Blaine, his breath short.
It took David an hour to upload the video to Facebook. It was a record, even for him, considering that he spent said hour in a room with no computer sitting right next to Kurt. The comments ranged from ‘they’re like our gay mascots, only gayer and we’re not allowed to kick them’ from David to ‘white boys, get your shit together’ from Mercedes. Even Rachel had commented, something about her fathers and how Kurt could call them if he had questions. Wes said ‘that’s all they do all day. Please save us.’ When he saw that Brittany had commented with ‘more boy-kissing plz’, he logged off, not wanting to read anything more.
---
“We need to choose the Christmas songs and start working on them,” Mr. Wood announced in the middle of the glee club rehearsal.
He couldn’t have chosen a worse timing. They were all exhausted from practicing Hey, Soul Sister six times in a row. Kurt was convinced he would be able to do the choreography in his sleep. He was lying on the floor where he had collapsed after their sixth round and he did not intend to move unless the school was on fire.
Hugo mumbled something with his face against the floor, where he too had collapsed.
“Come again?”
Sighing, he turned his head to the side to speak more audibly. “Can’t we just do Jingle Bells Rock and O Christmas Tree and be done with it?”
“Well yes, we’ll do the same ones than every year, that’s a given, but I kind of want a duet,” Mr. Wood announced.
Kurt opened his eyes because something told him he was going to be forced into this duet.
“Why do I have a feeling you’ll ask Kurt and I?” Blaine said.
“Because you are right? There’s this one song, let me find it, hold on,” he continued, digging in his bag and retrieving a cd.
He put it on and a mellow song started. Kurt burst out laughing when he recognised it.
“Baby It’s Cold Outside? Really?”
“It’s a lovely song! What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s a duet between a man and a woman,” Kurt pointed out, knowing it was a lost cause but fighting anyway. There was something about singing a romantic duet with Blaine that made him feel awkward.
“This is in your range, Kurt. Blaine, you didn’t say anything. What do you think?”
Blaine shrugged and said, “yeah, cool.” It closed the argument, to Kurt’s dismay.
“Last thing I need to tell you and then you can go. New Directions invited us. Basically, they’d do one song, we’d do one song, and then we’d ‘socialise’.” He did the quotation marks in the air.
Kurt rolled his eyes and grunted.
“Do I have to go?” he asked before he could stop himself.
Completely ignoring him, Mr. Wood started listing all the songs they could possibly sing to ‘totally kick New Directions’ ass into oblivion’. Always the helpful one, Blaine would say ‘Teenage Dream!’ every time their teacher stopped talking to breathe.
“Blaine, stop it. We’re not doing Teenage Dream,” he finally snapped when Blaine started talking over him.
“Why not? Last time I sang it, I got us a new student and he’s totally awesome.”
Kurt did not see the hug coming. Well, it was not a hug. It was more like Blaine throwing himself across Kurt’s chest – because he was still lying on the floor, he was serious about not moving unless there were flames – and smothering him.
He had expected Blaine to move away after the socially acceptable duration of a friendly hug had passed but apparently, Blaine had decided Kurt was now his pillow. Kurt patted his hair and Blaine hummed, nuzzling Kurt’s chest.
Kurt must have missed something because next thing he knew, they were doing Teenage Dream to impress New Directions. It was not like he had been paying attention, either. It was kind of hard to stay focused on something when Blaine was tapping his fingers on Kurt’s chest to follow the rhythm of whichever song he had in his head. Kurt wasn’t sure but he was ready to bet on Bad Romance.
For some reason, Blaine followed Kurt around for the rest of the day. He sat next to him during dinner and tagged along until Kurt was standing in the doorway of his room.
“Hum, do you want to come in?” Kurt asked when it was obvious Blaine wanted nothing more than that.
“Okay!” he said cheerfully and pushed past Kurt, sitting on his bed and getting comfortable among his cushions. “Do you want to watch a movie? I know it’s Friday night and the guys are doing something but I’d prefer a quiet night in, no?”
Something was off but Kurt could not put his finger on it. That kept him busy throughout the movie, though. He was trying to figure out what could possibly cause Blaine to hold him closely as they watched Singing In The Rain on Kurt’s laptop.
When Blaine fell asleep against him, he felt his heart swell a little. He knew Blaine was exhausted with all the revision for midterms, the stress of being the main soloist of The Warblers and taking part in just about every club the school had to offer, but he never figured it was that bad. He turned off the movie and slumped a bit more against his cushions to be more comfortable under Blaine’s weight. At the same time, Blaine’s phone beeped and flashed on Kurt’s nightstand. Carefully, he reached for it to turn it off in case it would wake him up. His eyes caught on the text that had caused it to ring.
So, how’s the plan going? From: Wes.
Kurt stared at it for a long time. His fingers itched with repressed curiosity. He was a sucker for reading people’s text messages, especially when they obviously could explain what was off with his friend.
He unlocked the phone and immediately was in the conversation Blaine was having with Wes.
This is getting ridiculous. You two are the only ones not able to see it.
What are you talking about?
You know. I think they can see it on Mars.
What do you expect me to do?
Be bolder, man. He’s obviously oblivious to the entire planet.
Yeah, well, the clinging phase is on. Next, maybe a movie in his room? I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes.Eek. I’m a teenage girl.
Kurt put the phone down, even more confused. Of course, he had a theory, but he was not sure if he wanted to hold onto it, in case he was wrong. He would obviously love it if Blaine was—if Blaine wanted—but he’d rather not hope for it and then be deceived.
Next to him, Blaine snored softly and held onto Kurt tighter.
---
To say that Kurt was nervous was an understatement. He could feel his insides trying to crawl out of his body. His nervousness was only growing as they neared Lima. He was also slightly impressed at how easily The Warblers had booked a bus. He remembered the bake sale New Directions had had to do to afford going to Sectionals. Then again, The Warblers were rock stars. The school granted them whatever they wanted.
“There we are. William McKinley High School,” Mr. Wood announced. “You’re okay, Kurt?”
Kurt nodded stiffly, gripping Blaine’s hand. He knew it was stupid to be so nervous; Karofsky had been expelled and he had twelve guys willing to defend him if anyone decided to do anything but raise their pinkie to harm Kurt.
Walking through the doors in a Dalton uniform felt weird; that and not being a student there anymore. He glanced at his locker as they passed it, noticing how it was still vacant. He also saw the effect they had, the thirteen of them, walking down the crowded hallway in their uniform. The stares they got from the girls were hard to miss. For a moment, he truly felt like a rock star.
The feeling died down when the football team came into sight and among them, Karofsky. Unconsciously, Kurt slowed down his pace and moved closer to Blaine. The boy took a firm hold of Kurt’s hand and pulled him forward.
“Don’t let them see your fear. They’re like tyrannosaurus, they can smell it.”
Kurt made a sound halfway between a laugh and a whimper but he kept on walking. The glare Karofsky sent Kurt’s way was hard to ignore, but he did. He kept his head high and did not even glance at them.
The glee club was already in the auditorium when they arrived. Mr. Schue came towards them to shake Mr. Wood’s hand and greet them. Kurt barely had time to brace himself before Mercedes crushed him into a tight hug.
When she finally let go of him, the second wave of hugs arrived, led by Finn. Ever since he found out about Karofsky threatening his life, he had become some sort of freakishly tall human shield for Kurt. He would not let Kurt walk alone the entire week before he transferred.
Even Coach Sylvester was there, the same look of perpetual annoyance on her face. He thought he saw the hint of a smile, though, when he waved at her.
“Lookin’ good, Porcelain,” she said. “Nice harem you’ve got there.”
Kurt rolled his eyes and smiled. In his nervousness about going back to McKinley, he had forgotten that there were people he truly liked there.
“Guys, this is all very nice, but we have a show to prepare. We decided that New Directions would perform first, since we’re the ones who invited you,” Rachel said before quickly walking backstage.
Finn shrugged and followed her, soon imitated by the rest of the club. Kurt and the Warblers sat in the middle of the auditorium, filling a row. Blaine was still holding his hand and did through the entire performance. Kurt had to admit that he missed part of it because at some point, Blaine started rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of Kurt’s hand. Kurt gripped his hand tighter to signal that it was completely fine with him and he caught Blaine’s smile out of the corner of his eyes.
The Warblers took the stage and that was when Kurt’s nerves truly kicked in. He had not noticed when he was sitting down but now that he was up on the stage, he saw that a few students had filled the auditorium as well. He was almost sure he caught a flash of white and red on a large figure, but before he could check again, Blaine sent the silent countdown to the beginning of the song.
The performance was going well and he caught a few impressed looks from his friends, which gave him even more energy to continue. But of course, Blaine had to improvise – he had been warned by Wes and David that it might happen when Blaine got too much into the performance – and grab Kurt by the hand to twirl him in a way that reminded him of his stunt on Save The Last Dance For Me.
The part that made Kurt wish he could disappear under the stage was when Blaine pressed himself against Kurt’s back and wrapped his arms across his chest, holding his hands, as he sang the final lines of the song, swaying them sides to sides as he did so.
Kurt felt a wave of anger bubbling inside of him as they left the stage.
“What was that?” he snapped at Blaine as soon as they were out of earshot from the crowd.
“Wha—”
“You know Karofsky could be there and you know how they treat gays here and yet you had to—to handle me like we were back at Dalton!”
“Kurt, calm down. I don’t even know what you mean by handling you. We danced, just like we did back in the commons. There’s even a video of it on Facebook. That’s worse than what I just did, no? I don’t understand why you’re getting so worked up.”
“Of course you don’t. He was there, Blaine. I don’t know how come he’s back at McKinley or why he bothered to watch us perform, but he was there. The guy who threatened to kill me saw what you did on that stage. We’re not at Dalton right now. This school is fucking insane and who knows if he won’t be outside to beat us up and—”
“What does it change if we’re not at Dalton? You know that if this guy ever even got close to you, you would have something like fifteen guys lining up to defend you. That’s not it. You mean it’s okay to act all cuddly when you’re inside those walls but out in the world, it’s not? How am I supposed to feel? Are you ashamed of me, is that it? You’re ashamed of whatever it is I’m not even sure we have.”
“I—No! I’m not ashamed! I just don’t want to get the shit beaten out of me by a closeted homophobe.”
“You know, I used to think you were just a bit slow, or oblivious, but you’re not. I get it, now. You want nothing to do with me. You never did. I’m a good friend, that’s all. You could have told me so I didn’t spend the last month flirting with you and making a fool out of myself. Thanks a lot, Hummel.”
Tears burned Kurt’s eyes as he watched Blaine storming away. He slumped against the nearest wall and slid to the floor, hiding his face in his knees. He wanted nothing more than to go curl up in his room – his real room – and die there.
“Kurt?” he heard but didn’t bother look up. It was Finn. Kurt could imagine the way he was awkwardly standing in front of him, not sure of what to do. “Are you alright? We heard you and Blaine yelling and then he stormed off the stage. Mercedes was busy flirting with that guy, Wes, so I figured you were all alone here and were probably upset so I came.”
Kurt shrugged, finally looking up. He wiped his eyes and shrugged again, feeling more tears coming down his cheeks when Finn sat next to him and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.
“I screwed up everything,” he finally said, leaning into his step-brother. “I—I love Blaine, okay, and I just—I got scared when he grabbed me on stage and I yelled at him for all the wrong reasons and it turned out he likes me but now he doesn’t want anything to do with me because I’ve been an ass to him and he thinks I don’t like him,” Kurt blurted out in one breath in between sobs.
“You remember that time when Rachel was dating Jesse because I spent too much time getting over Quinn?” Finn asked, squeezing Kurt’s shoulder. “And then I would be all awkward and sing songs like Jessie’s Girl and Hello, I Love You and she would just continually turn me down? Well I think Blaine’s not mad at you. He’s mad at himself because he—he was hanging on a false hope and it upsets him to know that he won’t get what he wants. That’s how I felt. After a while, you get sick of running after someone who turns you down or does not respond to you.”
Kurt wiped his eyes and stared at Finn in disbelief. There was no way it was a speech Rachel had written for him yet it was way too insightful for the teenager to have come up with it alone.
“You’ve changed, Finn. You’re kind of awesome, now,” Kurt said with a laugh, a quiver in his voice from the crying.
“Well, you know, I’m always awesome. It’s just that I show it more when you’re not creeping me out by flirting with me.”
Kurt grunted and hid his face in his knees.
“Sorry about that. Seriously. Sorry. Gosh.”
“It’s okay, man. I know I’m irresistible,” Fin said through a chuckle. “Come on, now. Everyone wants to talk to you.”
“Give me a minute?”
“Take your time.”
Finn patted his back and left.
By the time he came back out on the stage, the word had gone through the Warblers that Kurt and Blaine had had a fall out and they all politely said nothing. Kurt was touched, but he was also worried that they would side with Blaine as soon as he talked to them.
It didn’t seem like it would be an issue, though, because they were too busy talking with the girls, while Puck, Artie, Mike and Sam looked on with wary eyes. Sam seemed too busy making sure Quinn was not running away with a prep boy to actually acknowledge that at least half of them were friends with him.
Blaine was nowhere to be found, and so was David. Kurt met Wes’ eyes and the boy shrugged, giving him a half smile before resuming his conversation with Mercedes.
“Didn’t he have a girlfriend?” Alex asked him.
“I thought so, too. He better not break Mercedes’ heart.”
“Speaking of breaking hearts—”
“No.”
Alex put up his hands in surrender and moved on to greet Sam. Kurt stayed behind, watching the scene but not wanting to participate. He was not in the mood to be cheerful and happy to see his friends.
“You were right. He was there. Coach Sylvester threw him out of the auditorium halfway through your performance. You were okay, by the way. The competition will be fair, this year.” Rachel had snuck out of the crowd to stand next to him.
“I’m going to take this as the highest compliment you will ever give us?”
“It is.”
She didn’t speak for a moment and Kurt appreciated it. He was not in the mood to deal with her.
“You know, last year, when Finn ignored me because he thought he was—you know. At some point I got mad at him because—”
“It’s okay Rachel. Finn gave me this talk already. Thanks, though.”
The ride back to Dalton was the longest Kurt ever lived. He was sitting next to Hugo because Blaine had asked to switched seats with him. If some of them did not know what had happened before, now they did. Kurt spent the two hours staring out of his window, listening to the soundtrack of Annie on his iPod to try and numb the pain, as well as drown out Blaine’s voice.
Part two.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 07:04 am (UTC)"It was the first time he was seeing him since The Incident That Shall Not Be Named (as declared by Blaine over the phone four nights ago)"
ahh, icwydt, cute HP reference ;)
And, lolll at all the Facebook comments, and Sue: "“Lookin’ good, Porcelain,” she said. “Nice harem you’ve got there.” because she really would just flat out say that! lmao
Adorable and hilarious, can't wait to read more.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 07:18 am (UTC)The second part is already up (I'm a weirdo and actually write 20,000 words in five days) if you want to read it :)
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Date: 2010-11-27 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 07:25 am (UTC)... I have never actually watched QaF (except for the Justin/Brian videos... XD) but where do you see the reference? I'm curious :D
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Date: 2010-11-27 07:26 am (UTC)This infamous scene :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHvfyEeZCAM
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Date: 2010-11-27 08:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 08:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 08:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 08:30 am (UTC)And I wish I could do that. My family don't know (think my mom might, we don't talk about that) but a lot of them are more "I don't get it! Being gay is so stupid! It's wrong!" so you can see that dilemma. =.= -sniffles- Ah well, I'm stuck watching all the boy love from the UK, and America, and China, and Taiwan, and Korea, and Japan... I prefer Korean and Japan boy love. Especially Japan's... its so... o.o -giggles and imagines Gii and Takumi's love scene- Oh gosh... the greatest thing EVER!
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Date: 2010-11-27 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 08:40 am (UTC)Of course when my dad is drunk he says a bit more... meaner things. Ugh. =.= Yeah, but, I've been a yaoi fangirl since before I knew what the hell yaoi/slash/gay was or understood that it wasn't completely accepted by society. -shakes head-
Ah well, I'm sure they'll find out I like guy on guy when I somehow publish a book that's guy-on-guy... hopefully. XD
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Date: 2010-11-27 08:48 am (UTC)I think I've actually influenced my parents quite a bit. I remember a while ago watching Brothers and Sisters with my mom, and when Kevin and Scotty kissed she was all like "eww i dont want to see that." I was majorly offended. But recently we went to the Adam Lambert concert and afterwards we were discussing it, and she said "I think we can all agree that the best bits were when he kissed his cute guitarist." I was like "YES! VICTORY! I cured her" lmao!!! My dad is very tolerant of my infatuation, too. If he ever sees a gay couple he always points them out to me 'cos he knows I find it cute.
Anyway, I'm gonna PM you so we can continue our conversation 'cos right now we're filling up fleurdelisee's comments section lol. Sorry fleur, amazing story <3
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Date: 2010-11-27 04:20 pm (UTC)*waves* Hi. My name's Caro!
As much as I love being called fleur (because Harry Potter and Bambi and FLOWERS!), I figured I would introduce myself XD
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Date: 2010-11-27 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-28 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 11:38 am (UTC)I love the subtle AVPM reference. It made my day ^.^
Can't wait to read more! :D
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Date: 2010-11-27 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 04:19 pm (UTC)*gushes* People linked me on Tumblr! ♥
The second part is up! I put the link at the bottom of this part :)
I love your icon, by the way.
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Date: 2010-11-27 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 09:47 pm (UTC)*rushes off to read part 2*
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Date: 2010-11-27 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-28 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-27 11:17 pm (UTC)Amazing!
Date: 2010-11-28 02:27 am (UTC)I can't even form words right now. This fanfiction is truly an epic, on so many levels.
I can't get over how adorable some parts can be; how funny others can be, and how raw and emotional others can be. It's just fantastic! I can't wait to move on to the next part!
Re: Amazing!
Date: 2010-11-28 03:33 am (UTC)See you on the other side :D
(your icon is awesome, by the way)
Re: Amazing!
Date: 2010-11-28 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-28 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-28 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 05:47 pm (UTC)I think Blaine bounding in and spooning Kurt might be my new favourite mental image ever.
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Date: 2011-05-25 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-30 04:02 am (UTC)Ouais...
AH OUI Mr.Wood? :DDD Okay yé tard et jsuis morte de mon party hier mais cmon c'est voulu de pensé croche right? :DDD I like it
AW JAIME JAIME JAIME! Blaine torche en criss :D
Okay commenté en francais c'est weird j'ai comme pas d'excuse pour donner un commentaire de merde. désoler j'essaie.
part two here i come!
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Date: 2011-05-30 09:04 pm (UTC)Honnêtement? Je n'y avais même pas pensé. Je relisais Harry Potter 1 à l'époque et bon, Oliver Wood :P
Recevoir un commentaire en français est probablement aussi étrange que d'en écrire un :P