Kurt buried his head deep into his pillow, hoping the sound of his alarm would go away. As usual, it didn't, but instead woke up an irritated David, who didn't have class till 9:00 that morning.
"Just turn if off already," came his automatic grumble, and Kurt reluctantly did as he was told.
As he slowly sat up, he saw his moisturizers lined up next to his alarm clock. Blaine really was a genius, he marveled. On the first week Kurt had transferred to Dalton it became apparent that he was no morning person, so Blaine had suggested moving his moisturizers somewhere he would see them when he woke up. It certainly did give him motivation to hurry up and get out of bed because another minute dawdling meant one less minute spent on his skin, and that, he thought as he scooped up the bottles and headed to the bathroom, was simply unacceptable.
He gently rubbed his cheeks as he tried to remember why, when he thought of Blaine a few minutes ago, his heart rate resembled that of Pavoratti. He dropped the lotion bottle in the sink when it all came back to him. He and Blaine were official now. Right. Suddenly, his moisturizing routine didn't seem all that important anymore. He practically ran out of the bathroom when he realized that Blaine was next door, and he had no idea what to do. After they kissed yesterday – just thinking about it made the tempo of Kurt's already bird-like heartbeat increase from allegro to prestissimo - they both had enough adrenaline to carry themselves through three hours of practicing. Well, practicing their duet. Kurt smiled as he mentally corrected himself. Then Blaine made some excuse about needing to study, and Kurt didn't see him till later in the evening when he finally came to Kurt's room. Three hours and a million Youtube videos later, Blaine finally got around to officially asking if Kurt would be his boyfriend. Of course, Kurt responded in the affirmative, and they sealed matters with a kiss and a Facebook post.
But now, Kurt was left wondering exactly how to be a boyfriend. Blaine was probably asleep and didn't have class till 9 either, so as much as Kurt wanted to serenade him with a romantic song, that didn't seem like the best way to greet him on their first morning as a couple.
"You need to chill out."
Kurt turned to see that David was wide awake, staring at him.
"What?" His voice came out more high pitched than usual.
"Kurt, you're standing in the middle of the room in you pajamas, and you keep looking from the bathroom to the door so fast you're gonna get permanent brain damage."
Kurt felt his face slowly turn red, and he retreated to his bed. "Just because you and Wes function like an old, married couple doesn't mean that some of us can't be a little nervous when we have to see our boyfriend for the first time," he huffed.
David chuckled. "You do realize that he's still the same person, don't you? You've seen him millions of times, it's no big deal."
"Clearly, you don't understand," Kurt replied, examining his fingernails. By the time he looked up, his ever-so-helpful roommate was asleep.
~oOo~
"Wes, Wes, Wes, Wes," Blaine chanted, as he strummed his guitar.
Wes pulled on a sweatshirt. "You know, these walls are pretty thin, and if Kurt hears you singing to me, he's going to be pretty upset."
"I'm not singing to you," Blaine explained, fingers still toying with the strings. "I'm trying to get your attention."
Wes froze with his pants halfway up, and smacked himself on the forehead. "Oh! Is that what you're trying to do?" he exclaimed with mock sarcasm.
"You can pull your pants up now!" Blaine sang, and punctuated the line with a few epic chords.
"Ok, I think both our boyfriends would start to wonder what's going on if they heard that."
Blaine sighed. "But I'm nervous. You know I sing everything or at least provide myself with accompaniment when I'm nervous."
"So we've entered that phase again."
Blaine ignored his jibe. "Seriously, what do I do when I see Kurt?"
Wes rolled his eyes. "I don't know. Just do whatever you do when you normally see him."
"Which would be?" His strumming became more intense.
"Oh, you know, get all pink in the face and forget how to stand there without looking more awkward then you usually do." He opened his textbook and sprawled out on his bed. "And if you keep playing that guitar, I'm not gonna be able to get anything done."
Blaine let his guitar fall onto his bed. "You are so not helpful," he declared a capella.
~oOo~
David clapped Blaine on the back on their way out of Spanish class.
"Good luck, man!"
Blaine's face only crumpled further.
"Look, not like you don't know what he's gonna say. Or maybe with that look he will say no. C'mon, smile!"
David turned the corner, leaving an unusually nervous Blaine standing in the hallway, trying to get a grip on himself. Usually he and David headed to the cafeteria together, but Blaine wanted to ask Kurt out before lunch in order to reduce the potential awkward factor, such as food stuck in either of their teeth. Maybe Kurt wouldn't be consciously aware of this gentlemanly act on his part, but Blaine knew that Kurt certainly wouldn't want it the other way.
He shook his head to clear it, and that felt so good he decided to shake his arms out too, and then his legs.
"Ok," he told himself, "he's gonna love you." He smiled when he remembered why that sounded familiar – it was what Kurt told him before he sang to Jeremiah.
"Oh God," he thought. "Why is my life so ridiculous?"
Kurt had physics in the science wing, and if Blaine hurried, he'd be able to catch him on his way to the cafeteria. As he walked, he tried to calm himself down, even though he knew he shouldn't be nervous. It's just that the last time he tried to ask someone out, the guy lost his job. But this had no potential to turn into a Jeremiah-like incident, because that time he was only thinking about himself. This time, he was completely focused on Kurt, on giving Kurt everything he wanted-
"Blaine! What are you doing down this way?"
Oh! Kurt!
Wait, I didn't say that out loud, did I?
"Kurt!" That was better. He smiled his best open-mouthed-eyebrows-raised-entire-face-lit-up smile, but then realized that Kurt was waiting for an answer.
"I was just coming to find you! I- I had something I wanted to ask you, actually."
Kurt raised his eyebrows.
"But I can't ask you here. Come with me." He took Kurt's hand (the correct hand this time- God, why was he so uncoordinated that time when he first showed Kurt the shortcut to the Warbler's room? He cringed every time he thought about it) and led him outside to one of Dalton's many courtyards.
They sat down on a bench, Blaine still holding Kurt's hand.
"So, what's with all the theatrics?" Kurt smiled devilishly. "I am hungry, you know."
Blaine ignored him. "Kurt Hummel-Warbler," he began solemnly, and smiled at Kurt's suddenly nervous but completely adorable face. "I think that, since you and I are dating, it would be imperative that we go on a real date." He paused, gauging Kurt's expression again, which was still nervous but now surprised. "I want to take you out." He squeezed Kurt's hand and leaned closer, putting his lips to his boyfriend's ear. "Are you doing anything Friday evening?" he whispered in a low voice.
Before Kurt had time to answer, Blaine wrapped his arms around him and slowly moved his lips from Kurt's ear down to his jawbone. He could feel Kurt's breath leave him as he reached his lips, and Blaine shuddered. But he couldn't let himself get sidetracked by kissing Kurt – he still needed an answer. He pulled away but kept his face inches from his boyfriend's.
He laughed as he watched Kurt try to regain composure.
"Well, when you put it that way," Kurt exhaled deeply, "then no, I suppose I'm not."
"Excellent."
"Do you have somewhere in mind?"
"Yeah, actually I do." He reached into the pocket his blazer and pulled out what looked like a glossy brochure that he proceeded to unfold.
When Kurt saw what it was, his eyebrows went straight up to his hairline.
"Bel Lago? Blaine, that's…" his expression was unreadable for a fraction of a second, but then he smiled. "Great!" he finished unconvincingly.
Blaine's heart sunk. He had done something wrong, but he wasn't exactly sure what. "Kurt? Something's the matter, isn't it?"
Kurt's eyes became wide. "No! Nothing's the matter!" he squeaked.
"I can tell something's wrong."
Still no response, just a perfect show face.
Wait a minute, this had worked a minute ago…Blaine leaned into Kurt and whispered in his ear again, as breathily as possible. "Tell me what's wrong. Please?"
"Oh, that is so not fair," Kurt groaned. He scooted away from Blaine to the end of the bench, and sat cross-legged, facing him. "It's nothing, really…just that Bel Lago is probably the most expensive restaurant within 50 miles of Westerville. But it's completely fine!" he hurried to add. "I've been saving up my shopping money for the past couple of weeks, and I'm totally willing to spend it on a date with you-"
"Kurt!" Blaine cut him off when he figured out what was going on. Did Kurt not know what a date was, or something? For someone who claimed to like romance novels and chick flicks, he still had a lot to learn. "If I ask you out on a date, that means I pay!"
"I know, traditionally speaking, yes, I am aware that you would pay." Blaine exhaled, relieved. Maybe he had a lot to teach his boyfriend about sex- no, no, no, that is NOT what you're here to think about- but at least he could be rest assured that Kurt was well versed in the romance department. "But I can't let you do that," Kurt finished, with the finality of someone who was laying down the law.
Blaine was baffled. "And why is that?"
"Because you'd be spending a fortune on me and –"
"Kurt, you know I can afford it-"
"Blaine, please let me finish."
Blaine pretended to zip his mouth and proceeded to throw away the key, but Kurt glared at him and he stopped mid-pantomime.
Kurt inhaled and tilted his head upward so that his chin stuck out. If anyone else did that, Blaine would have thought it was elitist, but on Kurt it was simply cute. "I'm sure you can afford this, Blaine, but I don't…I like doing things myself. Which I'm sure you're painfully aware of by now." He smiled out of the corner of his mouth. "And I've never liked the idea of expensive dates, because I think we could have just as much fun doing something completely free. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm high class and all that, but I think-" he seemed to be calibrating his words very carefully at this point- "I think that for our first date especially, it would take the focus off of us."
Well. He had done it again, hadn't he. Thought about himself and what he wanted, instead of the other person. And Kurt was no Jeremiah. This time it mattered.
"Blaine?" Kurt must have seen his face fall.
"I told you I'd screw this up." He pulled his legs up onto the bench and hugged his knees, which, with the blazer on, was quite a feat.
"Sorry, what?"
"Remember, in the Lima Bean on Valentine's Day? I said I knew nothing about relationships, and that I'd probably mess this up."
And then Kurt was sitting next to him, wrapping his arms around his shoulders.
"Look at me."
Blaine slowly raised his head.
"You didn't do anything wrong. I overreacted. I shouldn't have shot you down like that. Does it really mean a lot to you to be able to take me out somewhere nice?"
Blaine took both of Kurt's hands in his. "It kind of does, yeah," he admitted. "I want to be able to give you…things you've never had before." Oh, great, did that sound like what he thought it sounded like? Judging from Kurt's angelic smile, it probably didn't. "And I guess I've been raised to be that traditional gentleman. Did you know I took Barclay classes when I was in elementary school?"
"So you're telling me that all this charm doesn't automatically come with the blazer and tie?"
Blaine laughed. "I'm sorry to say, it does not."
"Damn. And I thought I had a chance at it."
The two boys sat in silence for a while, Blaine's head resting on Kurt's shoulder. Finally, Kurt spoke.
"I have a proposition."
"Go for it."
"I understand that you really want to go to a nice restaurant for our first date, and I promise that I'll let you take me there without offering to pay once."
How did I manage to find the sweetest, most sensitive boy in the entire world?
"But, I want us to go on two first dates."
Blaine furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "But…if there's two of them, they can't both be the first."
"That's right, Einstein. But I think we can forgive that minor detail forced upon us by the space-time continuum."
Blaine nodded eagerly. "Okay. So what's the second date going to be?"
"The second date is going to be my date. I'm going to take you out, and it's hardly going to cost us a thing. But trust me," he added, "you're going to have wayyy more fun."
"Oh, so we're making this a contest?" Blaine raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. Of course Kurt would get competitive over something like this.
"Bring it," Kurt declared, looking like he did when he was about to fight someone for a solo. "You go on Friday, and I go on Saturday."
"Deal."
They both had dead serious expressions, but then looked at each other and cracked up.
"C'mon, let's go eat." Kurt took Blaine's hand and they left the courtyard.
They got to the cafeteria , both breathless from skipping down the hallway. As he caught his breath, Kurt pondered how Blaine kept managing to make him happier and happier. Sure, he wasn't too thrilled with letting Blaine waste a fortune on him, but compromising was fun. They sat down across from Wes and David, still holding hands.
"Well, well, well, look what we have here." Wes regarded the pair opposite him with scrutiny.
"I told you he'd say yes, man," David shook his head at Blaine.
Kurt and Blaine looked at each other and giggled.
"Well…" Blaine began.
"It's complicated." Kurt assured them, and proceeded to unpack his lunch as Blaine did the same.
"Will you two just stop giggling and tell us what's going on?" Wes demanded.
"Nope," they responded at the same time.
"You two are just jealous," Blaine told them. "You might be the world's most mature and functional teenage couple, but we get to be the cutest. Right Kurt?"
"Right." Kurt planted a kiss on Blaine's cheek, and laughed out loud when he remembered first meeting David and Wes. Well, he met them right after Blaine sang Teenage Dream, but it was months later when he met David and Wes, the couple…
~oOo~
He dragged his suitcase into Room 127, grumbling to himself about sprained shoulders and broken fingernails.
"If you didn't bring 10 times Lauren Zizes' weight in clothes, we might actually be getting somewhere," Blaine panted from down the hall.
"Ok, first of all, that comment wasn't very nice, and second of all, yours is the light one. Just my scarves are in there."
Kurt heaved the suitcase onto the empty bed and saw Wes and David, who must have come in sometime between trips to the car, sitting at David's computer, side by side on the oversized desk chairs Dalton provided.
"Hi David!" He was glad he would be rooming with someone he'd already met.
"Hey, Kurt." David didn't turn around. He pointed to something at the screen and murmured to Wes.
Finally, Blaine stumbled into the room, kicking the suitcase in front of him. The two boys admired their work- eight huge bags that covered the entire floorspace of Kurt's side of the room.
Kurt turned to Blaine with a sheepish expression. "There's something I didn't tell you."
"And what might that be?" he asked hesitantly.
"There's one more bag in the backseat."
"What? You said everything was in the trunk!" Blaine crumpled to the floor.
"Oh, get up! I'll tell you what, you go get it, I'll make room here, and then I'll come meet you."
"Fine," he turned his back on Kurt dramatically.
"David, look at this one."
Kurt noticed for the first time that Wes' arm was around David, but it could have been completely platonic. He made a mental note to ask Blaine later.
David sighed. "Wes, I think we both know that's not a viable option. Stop looking at the logos and start reading about these plans. Life insurance is serious stuff, you can't just pick out a company because it looks pretty." He gave him a stern look.
"But that's how I picked you out," Wes argued.
Oh. Ok, wow.
That seemed to cave David, and he leaned down to kiss Wes on the forehead. "Just because that worked once, don't expect it to happen again."
Kurt banged the suitcases around to remind the happy couple that there was someone else in the room.
"Look, I think this one is the best plan if we know we want children," David pointed out.
"I agree with you, but you're still not thinking long term."
Kurt shook his head. Were these two for real? Or was this some kind of joke? He took off to go find Blaine.
He found him halfway to the car, trying to figure out whether it was worth it to bend down and roll the suitcase, or just carry it.
"Ok. What's going on with Wes and David?" he demanded.
Blaine gave him a mock look of horror. "They're dating," he stated simply. "Surely you aren't prejudiced against this prime example of love and affection demonstrated by two of Dalton's star students?"
Kurt smacked him. "You know what I mean. They seem a little…fast track."
Blaine's face gave way to a grin. "So you finally met Wes and David the couple, huh?"
"Seems like it."
Kurt reached down and picked up one end of the suitcase so they could start making some progress.
"What were they doing?"
"I think they were shopping for life insurance. Seriously, who does that at this age?"
"Wes and David do." Blaine shrugged. "I wish I was there to see them meet. Nick, one of the Warblers, swears he didn't believe in love at first sight till he saw the two of them on the first day of freshman year."
They reached Kurt and David's room to find the boys lying on their stomachs on David's bed, looking at printouts of various Excel spreadsheets.
Wes looked up. "Blaine, how about you help Kurt unpack so David and I can use our room."
David beamed at Wes. "Perfect! Now we can print out the rest of the spreadsheets and lay them out across the entire room, and then study for our physics test tomorrow!" His look of pure innocence contrasted humorously with Wes' look that definitely didn't say "spreadsheets."
"Um, sure, studying, printouts, whatever you want- let's go!" He grabbed David by his tie, and led him out the door and into the next room.
When they heard the door slam and lock, Kurt exhaled dramatically.
"They are way too energetic, but still rather endearing."
"And sneaky and annoying," Blaine added. "Now I don't have a room."
"Oh, that's right! Well, you can stay here."
"Thanks." Blaine smiled and leaned in to hug Kurt. He stayed there for a minute and Kurt felt completely at home at Dalton, but that was probably because he could feel Blaine's breath on his neck.
"Just a fair warning," Blaine began as he pulled away, "those two are gonna try to throw us together as much as possible so they get that room to themselves. I can see Wes already has his mind set on it, and – well, nothing stops Wes."
Kurt tried desperately to come up with something witty to say, but his heartbeat had suddenly increased and he felt extremely lightheaded. Looking into Blaine's hazel eyes definitely wasn't helping.
"Well, I'm sure we'll be able to make the best of it." He took Blaine's hand and led him to the first suitcase. "Here, you can get started on the scarves."
~oOo~
"So now we can finally start making progress on my list of double date activities!" David was saying as Kurt focused back in on their conversation.
Wes rolled his eyes. "He's happier than you two – he's been excited for this for weeks now."
"Fine, but Kurt and I have to catch up on our individual date plans before we let you two come barging in," Blaine said.
David threw his hands up in the air. "Look at that. He gets a boyfriend and forgets about us."
"What, afraid you two are gonna fall over without your third wheel?"
"Yeah, c'mon David, time to get rid of our training wheel," Wes joked.
As Kurt listened to his friends bicker, he felt like he belonged here more than anywhere – he had a best-friend-turned-boyfriend and friends who were not only willing to support him but were thrilled about it.
