Notes: And so begins Klaine Week 2013!
I'll be writing something every day. (Last year, I only managed two!) If you want to know more about Klaine Week, visit [klaineweek2013 dot tumblr dot com]. I absolutely love the Klaine fandom – it's such a great community to belong to, even if you're relatively late to the game like I was (am?). If you're struggling to find the Tumblr page, essentially, in celebration of the anniversary of Original Song, the fandom has a different theme each day this week to create something – anything, be it fic, art, video, graphic, whatever! – and then share it. I highly encourage everyone to go and check out the Tumblr and to give as much support to everyone they can! (And if you don't have a Tumblr but still want to take part, you can share on the Tumblr page via the submit box.)
Because I'm a complete sap who loves order and patterns, I've also decided on an extra theme linking all my submissions this week together: a tracing of sorts through Kurt and Blaine's life together. This should be quite obvious as the week goes on but I'll explain in a final note on Sunday just in case. :)
The M-rating is only accurate for Day 4/Thursday, although tomorrow will have plenty of innuendo (probably. I haven't written it yet, haha). I'll remind again when it comes to Thursday for anyone who will want to skip over it (it'll be my first foray into PWP). For today, please excuse the fact that I've never seen Desperate Housewives.
The title for the Week comes from Book of Love by Peter Gabriel.
DAY ONE: EARLY KLAINE
In which Blaine comes over to Kurt's house for their first Desperate Housewives marathon.
"Finn Hudson, you put down those cookies right now!" Kurt shrieks, slapping the back of Finn's hand for good measure. The taller boy drops the double-chocolate-mint cookie back on the plate and draws his hand to his chest with a pout. Kurt rolls his eyes. "Stop making that face. You can have whatever's leftover when Blaine goes home."
"Like anyone would be dumb enough not to eat everything you cook," Finn says mournfully. Kurt allows himself a moment to preen.
"Regardless, the platters are for Blaine and me to share later."
"Fine."
Finn ambles over to the refrigerator and starts rooting around in there for a snack. Kurt considers fixing something quickly for him, or maybe shooing him from the kitchen entirely, but he has far too many things to concern himself over before Blaine arrives and barely enough time in which to complete it. He fixes the cookies on the plate, makes sure the fruit and cheese trays are perfectly in order, and then gives Finn very strict instructions to use a plate and eat either at the table or in his room and not to get crumbs anywhere on pain of castration. It's been Kurt's go-to threat since Finn watched Hard Candy a few weeks ago, and it hasn't failed so far.
Kurt covers the food with clingfilm to keep it from drying out and then, with that sorted, consults his iPhone for the remainder of his list.
When Kurt found out that Blaine was as much a fan of awful television as himself, he had been over the moon, and they'd decided to have a Desperate Housewives marathon at Kurt's house in preparation for the restart of the season after the Christmas hiatus. Kurt had then spent three days agonising over whether to host in the living room – where Blaine would likely be less suspicious, but Kurt knew his dad would find an excuse to poke his head in every five minutes and, well, Kurt really didn't want to share – or his bedroom – where things could get potentially very awkward because they were alone, but Blaine would probably be able to relax more and they'd be alone. In the end, Kurt's selfishness had tipped the scales, and because they weren't dating, his dad would be able to do little more than raise his eyebrows a little.
But then that had only left him with six days to prepare, and what with the commute to Dalton and the workload and hanging out with his family and his old friends and his new friends, there hadn't been a lot of time to prepare, and now Kurt has a mere three hours and twelve minutes to make sure everything is perfect so Blaine isn't scared off and Kurt will still maybe, hopefully be able to date him one day.
Providing that Blaine doesn't arrive early, as he tends to; and that his family behaves once he's here.
He spends thirty minutes making sure his glorified en suite bathroom is spotless and well-stocked, another twenty doing the same for the main bathroom, and then informs his family that they're only to use the toilet through the main bedroom or else make sure not to touch anything.
Burt and Carole both give him knowing, amused looks which make Kurt blush, but he's got too much to do to dwell – there's vacuuming the living room and the entrance and the stairs, polishing the windows and mirrors, approving all the pictures on display and making sure the rest are hidden out of sight, cleaning his room and then locking the door to Finn's, all the while repeatedly checking the food to make sure his stepbrother hasn't eaten anything anyway and leaving enough time to make himself look fabulous afterwards.
"This is an awful lot of trouble to go through for 'just friends'," Burt teases.
"There's nothing wrong with presenting a clean house to a guest," Kurt snipes back. "Oh, my god, take your feet off the table! Your footrest is right there! We don't live in a barn, Dad!"
Burt chuckles an insincere, "Sorry, kid," as he pulls out the footrest and drops his feet onto it.
Miraculously, Kurt has the house, himself, their refreshments and his television ready in time, and has managed to wrangle promises of good behaviour from his family: the doorbell rings just as Kurt's throwing away the last of the clingfilm.
"I'll get it!" he trills, ignoring his dad and Carole's chuckles as he darts to the door. There's a foggy glass window in it so Kurt can't really take a moment to calm his sudden nerves – after all, it's not like he hasn't hung out with Blaine alone before, and they've gone to the theatre and movies tons of times, but this is at Kurt's house and Blaine's never really met his family before and this just seems like a really huge step towards being boyfriends.
He opens the door to a Blaine who is wearing the most adorable plaid tie ever, and wonderfully tailored skinny jeans, and a gorgeous cardigan which looks similar to something Kurt saw in Vogue a few months ago, and who is holding a small bouquet of pink and yellow tulips surrounded by green leaves.
"Hi," Kurt breathes out – swoons, really, but he'll never admit it, except he's never gotten flowers before from anyone.
"Hey." Blaine's grin is just a touch bashful as he holds out the flowers. "I got these for you – I hope that's okay."
"It's more than okay," Kurt says. He realises he's still swooning a little and pinches his wrist behind the bouquet to snap out of it. "Thank you - they're gorgeous!"
"Great! I mean, yeah, good, I'm glad."
They catch each other's eyes and snap them away, laughing a little. Kurt feels so light he might just float up to the ceiling at any moment like Mary Poppins.
"I love your—" everything "—bow tie, by the way," Kurt says, falling back to fashion to break the terrible, wonderful awkwardness. "It's adorable."
As is the way Blaine puffs his chest out a little and looks very pleased. "Thanks! You look amazing, as always. I've never seen that broach before."
Kurt invites Blaine in and closes the door while the shorter boy takes his shoes off and sets them next to the shoe rack. (Kurt, of course, keeps all his shoes in his room, and they're only put on the rack if they're dirty when he comes home.) They talk about Blaine's drive and their classes and homework and the Warblers while Kurt finds a vase (ignoring his dad's grin when he comes into the kitchen to grab himself a glass of water) and introduces Blaine to everyone and the boys sort out drinks and take all their refreshments upstairs. They almost get distracted by the stack of novels on Kurt's bedside table, but within half an hour, they're exchanging catty comments about the scandals of Wisteria Lane.
End notes: Blaine did some research and decided on pink tulips for caring; the florist said they're popular to get with yellow ones (meaning 'hopelessly in love') and Blaine thought they looked nice together so he agreed. He really hoped Kurt would like them. Oh, Blainers, you really are oblivious, aren't you?
Sorry this one didn't have much Klaine! I couldn't think of a smooth segue into Blaine staying for dinner after their marathon because of the aforementioned lack of Housewives knowledge, and if I'd put in a line break I just would have kept writing even though I need to finish an essay. :( Rest assured, Blaine does stay for dinner, he gets on wonderfully with everyone, Burt keeps making little digs at Kurt's crush, and when Blaine goes home they hover awkwardly at the door for a few minutes until they give each other a too-long-to-be-friendly hug and then Kurt watches Blaine drive away and Burt tells Kurt he hopes this thing with Blaine works out and then Kurt floats up to his room and cuddles up to one of his pillows pretending it's Blaine. (If you're interested in reading this in full, let me know in a review/PM and I'll come back to this if I have time later in the week?)