Inspired by art by tacogrande! The picture is linked in my post of this fic on my Tumblr.
"Oh, goddammit," Kurt said, staring down at the narrow yet surprisingly deep crack in the pavement below the bleachers. He had fumbled his lighter while pulling it out of his pants and dropped it, and from the looks of it, that lighter was going to be gone forever. "Great. Amazing. Just what I needed."
He took a seat on the low concrete divider that helped support the metal seats, wondering what would be the fastest way to get his cigarette lit. Most of the Skanks were off in Columbus for what they were calling "Senior Ditch Day," like they needed an excuse to ditch class, while the few that hadn't gone were nowhere in sight. Kurt was mentally debating whether he should go buy a new lighter from the closest 7/11 or try to hunt down Quinn when a bright flash and a loud crack startled him from his thoughts.
"What the-"
"You need help?" A warm voice asked. Kurt whipped his head around trying to determine where it was coming from. "Down here!"
Kurt nearly fell off the wall and cracked his head open.
"I'm hallucinating," he whispered, staring transfixed at the five-inch tall man standing between his feet. "I'm going into nicotine withdrawal and I'm hallucinating."
"I assure you, I'm real," the man said. "Hang on, I can prove it."
"Ow!"
"See?" the man said, a smirk appearing on his face. "You definitely felt that pinch."
"Okay, so you're not a hallucination," Kurt said, pulling his leg up so he could rub at the sore spot on his calf. "Do you have a name or something?"
"I'm Blaine! And you must be Kurt."
"I'm really gonna need you to explain-"
"You're the one who called me here. Of course I know your name!" Blaine said matter-of-factly.
Kurt just stared at him incredulously.
"You don't - right, I forgot that people don't really know about us anymore. I'm a brownie! We help people with whatever they need." Blaine paused, thinking. "Well, I do - some of my brethren are a little more mischievous."
"Wait, you showed up out of nowhere just because I dropped my lighter?" Kurt asked. "That seems excessive."
"If it's meaningful to you, then it's enough to bring me here," Blaine said. "Where'd you drop it?"
"That crack behind you," Kurt said, gesturing to the dirty pavement. Blaine started to run over as he continued, "But really, it's just a standard Bic lighter. I can go get another-"
"Is it important to you?" Blaine interrupted, stopping to level Kurt with a serious look.
"Well...yes," Kurt admitted. "My friend Quinn gave it to me the day I joined the Skanks. Said I deserved a present after all the shit I'd been through recently, even if it was just a cheap purple plastic lighter. I know it's silly."
"It's not silly," Blaine said, voice strong and certain. "And I can get it back for you, if you don't mind lending a hand."
"What do you need?"
"If you lower me in by the legs, I can grab onto your lighter," Blaine said, leaning over the crack. "Then all you have to do is hoist me back out."
"I shouldn't be able to fuck that up too badly," Kurt said, walking over to Blaine and kneeling down beside him. "Ready when you are."
"Let's do this!" Blaine said, smiling so bright that Kurt just had to grin in return.
Kurt grabbed Blaine's legs as gently as he could, seizing each of his ankles between his thumb and forefinger before lifting him up and helping him flip over and into the crack. He tried to keep an eye on Blaine as he descended, but the crack was a little too narrow for him to have a good view. A few seconds after lowering Blaine down, though, he heard a muffled cry of "Okay! Pull me back!" and did as he was told.
"One lighter, as promised," Blaine said once he was out and right-side up. "Though I have to say - and I'm sorry, this is a little rude - it would be better for you in the long run to just stop smoking."
"I know, I know, I plan to someday," Kurt said, pocketing his lighter carefully before plopping down on his butt. "But how I can be a real teenage rebel if I don't even smoke?"
"Your aesthetic would lose a little of its authenticity if you stopped, I admit," Blaine said, looking Kurt up and down.
"Once I don't need this aesthetic to get by, the cigarettes are going to go," Kurt said. "Even if I have to chew Nicorette for the rest of my life."
"What do you mean, 'need this aesthetic'?" Blaine asked.
Kurt's heart squeezed for a moment - Blaine looked so concerned for him, yet he didn't feel pitied or condescended to like he did when so many other people asked why he became a Skank.
"Life is hard when you're gay in small town Ohio," Kurt said, trying to stay succinct. "But it gets easier if you make the bullies scared of you."
"I see," Blaine said, and Kurt believed that he really did.
"Do you - are you just going to disappear now that you've helped me, or do you have time to grab a coffee? Do brownies like coffee?" Kurt asked, feeling a little foolish.
"I haven't had coffee in decades," Blaine said, an excited smile on his face. "And I should check back in with my people eventually, but I think I can swing a coffee break."
"Great," Kurt said, smiling back. "Then, uh - hop in? If you'd like?"
Kurt stretched out the breast pocket of his henley with a shrug.
"I'd love to," Blaine said. He let Kurt lift him into his pocket, where he huddled down. "I'll keep my head down while we're in public, unless it's normal for people to have magical creatures in their pockets now?"
"Uh, no, not quite," Kurt said. "But I'll find us somewhere private to eat once we've ordered."
"Wonderful," Blaine said as Kurt stood and started walking.
Kurt couldn't help but agree.
They soon developed a pattern. Kurt would drop his lighter or a piercing or get ash on his clothes, and then Blaine would appear with that now-standard flash of light and help Kurt out of his predicament. They would then go for coffee or soft pretzels, or once, memorably, a children's movie about fairies that made Blaine laugh hysterically from start to finish.
"I should be mad that they didn't even include any boy fairies, but honestly, that movie was so funny that I can't even get upset. They trailed glitter everywhere they went, Kurt!" Blaine had said afterwards, wiping tears from his eyes.
Kurt snickered at the memory, still amused by it weeks later. Blaine looked up from where he was scouring Kurt's carpet for an earring back, curious.
"Just thinking about that movie we saw," Kurt explained.
Blaine snorted. "Oh my God, it was terrible!"
"I heard they're making a sequel. I'll have to drop my lighter again when it comes out so we can see it."
"I really wish you'd stop smoking, Kurt," Blaine said, looking pointedly at the cigarette Kurt was smoking out his window so it wouldn't make his room smelly. "I know it helps with your look, but I just - I don't like it."
"How am I supposed to keep seeing you if I don't smoke, Blaine?" Kurt said rapidly. When he took time to process what he'd just said, he clapped a hand over his mouth.
"What?"
"You only appeared because I dropped my lighter," Kurt said, knowing there was no deflecting Blaine when he was on a mission - if he was willing to go through every single button in Kurt's collection to find a match for his shirt repair, he'd hound Kurt about this topic until he spilled. "If I don't need a lighter anymore, you'll have fewer reasons to come back. I don't actually have a deep emotional connection to most of my earrings, Blaine."
"You think I don't know that? Kurt, I've been grasping for reasons to see you ever since I got back that first day. My people are getting sick of me taking whatever excuse I can to help you out," Blaine said. He straightened up and clambered up Kurt's desk chair, where he jumped to the windowsill next to Kurt. "But I won't have any excuses to come back if you're dead from lung cancer! We could have years together, Kurt, but if you keep smoking, you lower our chances."
Kurt stubbed his cigarette out on his nearby ashtray before flinging the whole thing in the trash. "I'll go get the patch. Immediately. You can come with me and watch me put it on, if you want. I just thought I needed to have reasons to keep you around-"
"You are the reason I'm around," Blaine said. He tugged at Kurt's jacket, gesturing for Kurt to lift him up closer to his face. When Kurt did, Blaine leaned in and kissed him sweetly, just barely able to center both of his lips on Kurt's upper.
Kurt kissed back as best he could, not wanting to smother Blaine. He was distracted by the blinding flash and sudden weight against his chest that sent him toppling to the floor, though.
"What the-"
"Holy crap," Blaine said, now straddling Kurt.
"Blaine, you're - you're-"
"Human-sized!" Blaine finished, extending one of his arms and looking at it in awe.
Kurt pushed himself up to sit against his bed, wrapping an arm around Blaine's waist when he tried to move away. "How did this happen?!" he asked.
"It's like I told you when we met - I help with whatever you need," Blaine said. "Right now, what you needed - what we both needed - was each other."
"So you'll stay this way?"
"As long as you need me to."
"You know that'll be forever, right?"
"That's what I was hoping you'd say."
Kurt just grinned and pulled Blaine in for another kiss.