"I got you a present!" Rachel announced as she walked up to Blaine's locker before second period. He shot her an amused grin, putting his books back down and turning towards her.
"But it's not my birthday," He pointed out.
"Of course it isn't," she scoffed, as if it was obvious. "It is, however, Valentine's Day," she reminded him, and he blanched-he hadn't actually been keeping track of the dates since Kurt and his demise almost a month previously.
"And you bought me a present for Valentine's Day?" He asked, trying to figure out how February 14th had snuck up so quickly, then trying to gauge just why Rachel was bringing him a present and not her boyfriend.
"Well, I would have given it to you regardless, but I know you've been more upset than you let on about the break up between Kurt and you, so I thought it could be a 'cheer up please' and a Valentine's Day gift." She handed him a red bag, full of pink, white and red tissue paper and covered in little hearts. He smiled at her efforts, glad once more that in his transfer to McKinley they had managed to become good friends, putting their weird history behind them. Which is why he shouldn't have been shocked when he pulled out a navy sweater-the perfect size, though he wasn't going to ask how she knew that-complete with a little red bear on the front. It almost matched her red sweater she was currently wearing. "Do you like it?" she asked hopefully, and he looked over at her-so nervous, so eager for approval. For his approval.
He wasn't even lying when he answered with "I love it," leaning down and kissing her cheek before he could stop himself. "Thank you." He decided to quickly put his cardigan away in his locker, pulling his new sweater on instead, and she looked so happy he thought she might explode. "This may be the best Valentine's Day ever now," he grinned at her, grabbing his books and closing his locker before linking arms with her and heading towards her class without even thinking about it.
"Do you know what make it even better?" She asked, her voice high with excitement, and he laughed a little at her eagerness.
"What?" he asked, ignoring Kurt's glare as they passed him in the hallway and hoping Rachel hadn't noticed it-he knew how much she hated coming between the two, having to choose between them. He was still trying to figure out a way to let her know how grateful he was that she had decided to stay neutral, to not choose sides. To not leave him for Kurt.
"If we sang a duet during Glee today," she said, looking at him again with her wide eyes that were practically pleading for him to say yes.
He bit his lip, "I don't know how Finn would take that-" he started, because it was Valentine's day and Finn was her boyfriend, regardless that Rachel seemed to spend more time with Blaine than Finn.
"Finn isn't here today, he's sick or something," Rachel told him, and it struck him as odd that she didn't seem more upset but he didn't press the issue. "Besides, he understands that sometimes I need to sing with other people." Blaine was still hesitant-Finn might actually be able to kill him if he ever suspected that he was trying to take away his girlfriend-not that he was actively trying to lure her away, but if she had showed any interest in him again, he wasn't sure he'd say no- and singing with Rachel was always so exhilarating. No one loved singing like she did, the way she got so into the song and let it completely take her over. It was an amazing thing to watch, and an even more awesome thing to be a part of.
"Only if you let me choose the song," he decided a moment later, already running through a list of potentials in his mind as they stopped outside her Calculus class. "I'll bring you the sheet music at lunch." She nodded, waving before heading into her class, and he watched for a second as she sat down, taking out her notebook and arranging her pencils at the top of her desk, smiling at him when she noticed him lurking. He smiled back, trying to fight back a blush as he headed for his own class at the opposite end of the school, looking down at his sweater.
It definitely wasn't a bust of a Valentine's Day.
"Did you pick a song?" Rachel asked as she sat down across from him at lunch later that day, and he nodded, handing her some sheet music. She glanced at it before looking back up at him. "I've never heard this song," she told him.
"Yeah, well, back at Dalton Wes had this huge crush on Rachael Yamagata, so we had to listen to her stuff all the time. And I had to hear this so much I ended up learning the chords to it, so I can even play guitar," he shrugged, fiddling with his lunch.
"Well, I have sixth period free-do you want to practice while the choir room is empty before we perform for the group?"
"I'd love that," he answered, and she smiled at him, popping a grape into her mouth as she focused on the papers in front of her now.
Blaine wasn't sure why he was nervous, maybe because the implications of singing a love song to one of your closest friends on Valentine's Day, who happens to have a boyfriend, weren't exactly something he thought he could deal with right now. And he wasn't even sure what he was dealing with in the first place. Rachel was a girl, and he was gay-really, he was. And he had broken up with Kurt only a month ago, and Kurt was still in the process of hating him. So he was sure this weird attachment to Rachel was just his lingering feelings for Kurt latching onto the next closest person.
But then she'd open her mouth to sing, and he felt the same thing he used to feel for Kurt-the contentment, the wonder and adoration. Like he could sit there for years and do nothing but let her sing to him, even if it meant he couldn't sing in return. Or she'd laugh, and he'd feel a burst of happiness over the cloud of sad that seemed to be following him lately. Even when she'd just smile at him, or hold his hand-they were both touchy feely people naturally, though he wasn't sure if that made it harder or easier to be around her.
"Well, today we have a couple performances the group wants to perform," Mr. Schuester announced after they had all settled in, Rachel front and center while Blaine tried to hide towards the back, next to Mike. "I think we have Puck and Santana up first." Blaine didn't even try and figure out a reason those two were singing together, too busy watching the back of Rachel's head, how she kind of swayed along to the music, more than likely mouthing the words even while mentally preparing for their performance. It seemed to take forever, and yet there was barely even anytime at all before he heard Mr. Schuester go "Next we have Blaine and Rachel."
"Ready?" Rachel asked him as they went to the center of the room, Blaine grabbing his guitar on the way. He nodded, starting to strum the beginning and focusing on her instead of the weird looks from the rest of the room. He knew, even as she began singing the first verse, that they were getting weird looks. He knew that if Finn were in the room, he'd never even try and sing something like this with her. But as she sang, her voice hitting the notes perfectly, he forgot about the rest of it, just watching her and strumming the guitar.
He looked straight at her as his part started, singing the words to her, wondering if she even felt half of what he felt, wondering if she was even remotely confused about what was happening between them. They were singing a love song in front of their entire glee club, in matching sweaters. If any stranger had stumbled into the room, they'd assume it was Rachel and Blaine that had been dating for years, not Rachel and Finn.
Their voices blended together as the song came towards its end, and now Rachel was staring at Blaine as much as he was staring at her. The rest of the club was pretty nonexistent in his mind now, and as the final note was played, he didn't think twice before leaning over and kissing her.