He's older. A lot older than Kurt. And he knows it. He knows that it's a little strange. But Kurt is beautiful. He's smart and sharp and funny and they just get each other in so many ways, and Walter has decided that if there is any way in hell he might have a chance, he's going to stick around long enough to try for it.
They talked on the phone again after their first date that wasn't a date and their second date that also wasn't a date but then it was, and suddenly it was as easy as it had been originally. Talking and laughing, Kurt sounded relaxed and happy again. It made Walter feel so good just to hear it. They talked every night that week, and when Kurt asked him to meet for brunch on Saturday, Walter thrilled with relief and the promise of opportunity.
There was no unpleasant shock as they met up among the crowd of people waiting for tables, because they were past that, and Kurt was endlessly polite. In fact, Kurt walked straight up to Walter and kissed him on the cheek in greeting, and Walter blushed like a boy, which made Kurt laugh and squeeze his arm. The laugh and ease of Kurt's posture and how the younger man positioned himself close to Walter gave the older man the courage to take his hand. Kurt flashed a tiny smile at him with the gesture, and Walter felt his chest expanding like a balloon. He barely felt his feet as they walked behind the hostess who seated them.
Walter started to take the chair across the square table from Kurt, but Kurt shook his head and nodded to the seat on the side closer to him on his left.
"It's so noisy in here, it'll be easier to talk this way," Kurt said. Walter just grinned, feeling giddy. They perused the menu, and Kurt's disparaging remarks about the lack of variety got Walter talking about restaurants in Europe where he'd traveled several times in his life. Kurt was enraptured and gazed so intently at him as he spoke that Walter found the rest of the world fading completely from his awareness. All there was was Kurt: his expressive face, his crystalline eyes, his light laughter. Walter was startled when the waitress came to take their order.
After several delightful hours, they finally finished their after brunch coffees and made their way out to the parking lot. Walter walked Kurt to Kurt's borrowed Toyota Celica ("In high school I had this beautiful black Navigator, but alas, I sold her to finance my New York dreams."), and they paused at the driver's side.
"Kurt, I really want to thank you for giving this a chance. I like you. I like talking with you and spending time with you," Walter said. Kurt's smile was warm, and he took Walter's hand and leaned closer. Walter didn't hesitate to take the hint and lightly brushed his lips against Kurt's. "Maybe we could have dinner together some night this week if you're free?"
"I'd like that," Kurt replied, and they said their farewells.
Dinner together was, once again, fantastic. Walter wondered wistfully what it would have been like to have known someone like Kurt when he was in his teens or twenties; someone unapologetically and unashamedly out and proud. Might he have had the strength to tell his high school sweetheart the truth instead of leading her into their life of awkward sex and unintentional hurts? He couldn't really regret his life and marriage, because he loved his kids more than anything, but he peered down the path of an alternate life he might have had and sighed.
It felt natural to ask Kurt to his place after their meal, offering to show him pictures from his trips abroad, and there was only the slightest hesitation before Kurt agreed.
Offering his guest a nightcap also felt natural, though he didn't feel bad when Kurt declined, citing his need to drive home later. Walter wasn't expecting anything sexual to happen that might lead to Kurt staying overnight.
Hoping, maybe, but not expecting.
They sat close on the couch and flipped through the photo albums Walter had. Kurt marveled at the fashions and gently teased Walter about his clothes and dark hair. Walter could tell Kurt enjoyed the beach pictures from the trip his family had taken to the Mediterranean and liked watching how Kurt's eyes lingered on the photos of himself in nothing but swim trunks in the bright sun.
"You tan so beautifully. I don't tan at all, I just freckle and burn," Kurt confessed.
"But your skin will age better, with you avoiding the sun damage. I admit, it's often startling to see myself as I am when I look in the mirror."
"You've aged so well, though, Walter! These pictures... They're just a different version of the handsome man you are today."
Walter couldn't keep from kissing him then. It was a far cry from the soft meeting of lips from the previous weekend. Kurt's lips parted for him immediately, and Walter gratefully took the invitation, tasting the younger man for the first time and shuddering with the experience.
They kissed that way, side by side, for several minutes before Walter drew back to look at Kurt. Pale cheeks were flushed a gorgeous pink, and Kurt's eyes fluttered open and returned his gaze. Walter closed the photo album and set it on the coffee table, then carefully put his arm around Kurt's shoulders and exerted gentle pressure to encourage an embrace. A small smile curved Kurt's lips, and he leaned into Walter and kissed him again.
It felt dreamlike to have the lithe, strong body of the young man in his arms. Walter didn't want it to ever end, not even when his own body responded to Kurt's soft hum of pleasure. Walter stroked Kurt's neck with shaking fingers, marveling at the softness. It felt disconcertingly more like touching a child's unblemished skin than like an adult's; even Walter's wife's skin had never felt so soft. Comparing Kurt's skin to that of a child's broke him out of the dreamy mist of desire and he drew away.
"Thank you for a wonderful evening, Kurt," Walter said, and Kurt took the hint.
Over the following weeks, taking Kurt to the movies, to dinner and brunch, talking endlessly on the phone with him, Walter forgot that moment of discomfort and uncertainty. When they once again ended up on his couch, kissing, the feel of Kurt's smooth cheeks and neck didn't detract from the enjoyment, it added to it, and they made out, with Kurt eventually straddling Walter's lap, wrapped up in the joy of kissing and sliding hands over each other's clothing but never quite ready to take the next step and remove any of those clothes.
Meeting for coffee a few days later, Kurt's confession that he was going to his friends' wedding with Blaine came as no surprise. Walter had witnessed the energy that crackled between the two young men, and so it was with a relatively light heart and only a bit of resignation that he sent Kurt away to go and be with, or at least fight for, the love of his young life.
When Walter went home, he turned on his computer. It was time to update his profile picture. The next time he met someone online, he was going to meet them unapologetic and unashamed; proud of who he was and where he was in life.
Like Kurt.
A/N While I had to drop out of the End of the World Big Bang, I'm still working on the dystopian Glee Klaine story I was writing for it, along with a novel length Kurt/Blaine/Sebastian and new chapters for other WIPs (NCIS and Arrow), but these little flash fictions just keep grabbing me and demanding to be written. Thanks for your patience!