Just a quick, un-beta-ed piece, to prove that I'm alive and to illustrate the strange sources of inspiration that college has offered me.
Inspired by the two guys who emerged from a bathroom chatting genially to each other, who I passed in the hall yesterday.
And dedicated to them (let's call them R&M). Just because.
...
Bad Habits Die Hard
...
Kurt inhaled deeply, trying to control the smile that threatened to dominate his expression as he calmly said, "I'll see you on the other side?"
Blaine, standing before him and grinning, nodded in reply, touching his hand briefly to Kurt's waist and leaning in to drop a soft kiss on his cheek.
"And we really will start on our work this time," Kurt warned. "No distractions."
"No distractions," Blaine echoed, placing his hand over his heart in mock sincerity. "I swear it before God."
"I don't think God's going to be listening too hard to you right now. Not after all the ways you've just sullied his name," Kurt muttered, glancing pointedly at the walls of the shower stall the two were standing in.
Blaine just grinned even wider, bobbing on his toes a little, as if so extremely satisfied with himself that the high of it all was too much to take and he had to find a way to deplete the extra energy before it made him bounce of the walls or turn on the water and tug his boyfriend under the showerhead again... or do something equally ridiculous.
"Go," he urged Kurt, pushing him away a bit. "We can't just walk out of a shower stall together, so I'll meet you outside in a minute."
"Okay. See you soon."
Kurt carefully unlocked the door and cracked it open, scanning up and down the hall outside to check it was deserted. Not a sound could be heard, no door of an unfortunate student was open, and no movement was apparent against the bland white walls. With a hurried little scuttle, Kurt moved out of the cubicle, shutting the door behind him quickly and immediately adopting an expression of nonchalance when the door to the room directly opposite the shower opened and a blonde-haired boy stepped out.
"Hey," greeted the boy brightly, flashing a wide smile. "I've been waiting for the shower forever – you certainly took your time, huh?"
It was all said with great ease and a light tone, one that would've been in equal parts friendly, comforting and deprecating had Kurt not been in the situation he currently was in.
"Oh-!" Kurt glanced between the boy and closed door to the shower, his mind wildly grasping for an idea to deter this new arrival from pursuing his showery plan. "Um. Yeah. Had to wash my hair. Clogged the drain a bit though, so uh... you shouldn't go in there. Needs a proper maintenance job."
The boy shook his head, scolding in a way so incredibly kind that it was practically a compliment, "Urgh, that drain's always clogged – and now I know whose fault it is! But I'm guessing you're not nearly as bad as the guy down the hall-" he lifted a hand to shield his mouth as he muttered conspiratorially, and with an impressive shudder "-dreadlocks."
"Me, too!" Kurt exclaimed wildly, positively panicking now. "I had dreadlocks! Lots of dreadlocks. In fact, I only just cut them off. They're all over the floor in there, clogging drains and sticking to wet surfaces and-"
The blonde-haired boy was laughing in a kind, I-don't-understand-your-sense-of-humour-but-congrats-for-giving-it-a-go way. He clapped a hand to Kurt's shoulder, waved goodbye to the quavering boy and promptly turned, opened the shower door and stepped inside, letting it close behind him. Kurt waited for a moment with baited breath and then-
"Hi."
"ARGH!"
"Sorry... -didn't mean to... my boyfrie- ...water efficiency..."
From the hall, Kurt could only hear scraps of sentences, and he covered his face in his hands, feeling his cheeks heat up like a sauna as Blaine's cheerful words continued coming from inside. After a minute, Kurt glanced back at the door, concerned as to why no one had come out of the cubicle yet. Taking a few steps closer, he could hear that the blonde boy was speaking now, and the occasional sounds of Blaine's voice seemed to ones of assertion, as if he were merely responding to a story. This anomaly carried on for another couple of minutes, then Blaine started speaking again and finally Kurt could hear him excusing himself, and then the door opened and Blaine stepped out, waving back at the boy before turning to Kurt and smiling.
"What just happened?" Kurt asked blankly.
Blaine shrugged, moving closer to casually take his boyfriend's hand, as if they hadn't just been caught showering together and he hadn't just spent minutes on end chatting away to stranger in a shower cubicle.
"I was just talking to Trevor. He was telling me about his family – did you know his great-grandfather established one of the first real-estate businesses in New York City?"
"I didn't even know his name was Trevor!"
Shooting his boyfriend an affectionate look, Blaine pointed out, "But he lives just down the hall from you..."
"So?"
"So don't you know everyone who lives in your hallway?"
Kurt stared for a moment, wondering if it would be worth explaining that being friends with everyone was not a college requirement. But it seemed like a lost cause – so many years of establishing easy companionships with random people in the street or at show-choir competitions had clearly ingrained this bad habit in Blaine, and Kurt didn't think himself capable of un-teaching it now.
"No," he replied shortly.
"Huh," said Blaine. "Weird."
And they continued on their way.