I was at an art fair earlier today and when I saw this booth, I got inspired. Silly summertime boyfriends fluff. :)
It was a warm summer day in Lima, the perfect kind of day to spend outdoors with your boyfriend. Conveniently, that was exactly what Kurt Hummel intended to do. The Lima art fair was set up downtown, and he wanted to see what the ratio of cheap junk to actually well-made crafts would be this year. (Last year was an all-time low at 75-25 favoring junk. Not surprising.)
While wandering through the tents, Kurt reflected for the billionth time that he was lucky to have Blaine as a boyfriend. No one else he knew would be willing to spend an obscene amount of time downtown with him browsing literally every booth – the good ones so they could hopefully find unique Christmas presents early in the year, and the bad ones so they could properly mock the sellers once they were out of earshot.
"But did you actually see those potholders, Kurt? Who looked at an empty beer can and thought 'Wow, I could make a fortune selling these after I smash them and stitch them into something vaguely resembling a square'?" Blaine's hands were gesturing rapidly along with his speech, making him look like he was about to lift off the ground and fly away if he got much more velocity.
"I tried not to see them, Blaine. I could feel myself going blind just from looking at all those cheap beer logos, although part of that could've also been me getting a contact buzz from the fumes coming off those monstrosities. Did she even wash those before smashing them?" Kurt dug in his pockets after his last sentence for the coconut-lime hand sanitizer he'd stashed in there earlier in case of a porta-potty crisis and put some on his own hands before offering the bottle to Blaine, who took some as well.
"She probably wanted them to have that real beer sm- oh my God," Blaine interrupted himself mid-sentence and cut across the crowds to the other side of the street. Kurt ran after him before he lost Blaine to the world of tacky Ohio State lawn ornaments forever.
"B, what- oh. Oh my God," Kurt squealed, making a mental note to later deny that he ever made that noise in his life.
"Bow ties, Kurt!" Blaine pointed inside the tent he'd run to, showing that it was full of handcrafted bow ties and hair ribbons – Kurt thought maybe some of those would work for Rachel, actually. He never thought he'd miss her old Ohio style, but her New York clothing didn't seem to have any personality outside of "slightly trampy." Maybe some accessories would change it up a bit.
While Kurt had been having his mental review of Rachel's wardrobe, Blaine had ducked into the almost deserted tent and started rifling through the spinning racks the artist had set up on the table. When Kurt walked up to him, he'd already picked out four.
"The sign says I can get 5 for $25! Did I actually die and go to heaven?" Blaine's smile was starting to make him look a little unstable, and Kurt was forced to evaluate just how much his boyfriend like bow ties yet again.
"Wow, these are actually pretty good quality, too. The fabric's thick and the stitching's tiny," Kurt said in amazement, picking up the closest tie and turning it over in his hands. It was pretty cute, too – the pattern of tiny sky blue songbirds on a navy blue background was pretty without being over the top, and it would go really well with the button-down Kurt had picked up at the Marc Jacobs sample sale back in May. He kept a hold of it and started browsing for more.
Blaine, meanwhile, had started on his second set of five. It looked to Kurt like he was trying to get a tie in every color of the rainbow, and a few more besides.
"B, are you going to be able to afford dinner tonight? It is your turn to pay, you know," Kurt tried to hint gently to Blaine that maybe he needed to consider putting a couple of those back.
"My grandparents told me not to spend their graduation gift to me on college stuff, so I've got a bit more cash than usual. Don't worry, baby, I'll take you wherever you wanna go," Blaine replied, leaning up to smooch Kurt on the tip of his nose and then on his lips, seeing as the only other person in the tent was the artist and he had been texting away on his phone the whole time they'd been in there.
"Well, I have wanted to try that new French place over in Westerville," Kurt joked, finding one last bow tie to make five for him and walking over to the cash box to pay, batting his eyes at Blaine all the while.
"You know I can't resist the pouty eyes, Kurt! No fair!" Blaine whined, following Kurt over to the check-out area.
"I'm kidding, Blaine. I'd be fine with the undoubtedly overcooked hot dogs and stale chips from the Lions' Club truck if I could eat them with you," Kurt finished sticking his money into the slot in the top of the tin and stepped away, thankful that he'd had exact change and didn't have to bother the surly-looking artist.
"You really know how to woo a man, Hummel," Blaine put his money in as well and took Kurt's hand, leading them out of the tent and back toward his car.
"My boyfriend's bad at romance, so I had to step up my game," Kurt said with a wink, breaking his grip on Blaine's hand once he saw the look of bloody murder forming there and starting to weave away through the crowd.
"Oh, it's on now, baby," Blaine retorted, chasing after Kurt and finally pinning him once they made it to the passenger door of Blaine's car. "Say I'm the most romantic boy in the world!" he demanded, tickling Kurt's sides with his fingers to coerce him.
"Fine, f-fine!" Kurt giggled out, catching his breath once Blaine stopped tickling him. "You. Are. The. Most. Romantic. Boy. In. The. World," he said, punctuating each word with a quick kiss.
"Much better. Dinnertime?" Blaine asked, shooing Kurt away from the door so he could open it for him.
"Dinnertime."