It didn't strike Kurt as odd when Blaine came out of their ensuite bathroom with a towel slung low around his hips and headed out of the bedroom towards the living area. Naturally, he looked up from his spot on the bed where he was reading so that he could enjoy the view, but other than that, he didn't think too much of it.
He heard Blaine rummaging about elsewhere in the apartment, and he was about to call out and ask if he needed help finding something, but suddenly Blaine was back, striding through the bedroom without acknowledging Kurt and going straight into the bathroom. Kurt furrowed his brow in confusion. Blaine was holding something in his hand when he walked back through. Was that…a Sharpie?
All interest in his book now lost, he set it aside, rolled off of the bed and headed for the bathroom. Blaine had left the door slightly ajar, but Kurt gave a courtesy knock as he entered. "Blaine, is everything…"
He trailed off at the sight in front of him. There was Blaine, standing in front of the bathroom mirror, Sharpie held up in one hand while the fingers of the other combed through his dark locks, as if he were looking for something. The hand in Blaine's hair froze at the sound of his husband's voice, as did his countenance.
Kurt advanced into the room and stood next to Blaine. "Um, what'cha doin'?" he asked leadingly.
Blaine glanced at Kurt sideways, then seemed to find his mobility again. The hand in his hair raked back and came to rest at the nape of his neck, while the other put the marker down on the counter. He closed his eyes and sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly. He muttered something that, to Kurt, sounded like, "Ifndaghr." When Kurt just tilted his head, clearly failing to understand Blaine's incoherent sentence, Blaine turned to look him in the eye and said quietly, "I found a gray hair."
Kurt couldn't help the small smile that turned up the corners of his mouth.
"It's not funny, Kurt!" Blaine whined, looking dejectedly away.
"Honey, it's okay," Kurt said, turning and hopping up on the wide countertop. He reached out, and with a gentle touch to his husband's cheek, turned his head to face him. Keeping a light finger under his chin, Kurt started looking across Blaine's hairline, but couldn't see anything but the usual soft, curly, black head of hair that he loved so much.
"I don't see anything," he said, trying to sound reassuring.
"It's there," Blaine said, his voice low and dark as he looked back at his reflection in the mirror. "I saw it. It's just hiding now."
"Well, if it's that hard to find, maybe you shouldn't worry about it, huh?" Kurt offered.
"Don't you see?" Blaine countered. "It's the first one. This is it. This is where it starts. One minute, I'm young and virile, the next, you're blending my peas."
"Wow, you've been hanging out with me and Rachel way too much," Kurt quipped, laughing at Blaine's dramatics while running a comforting hand up and down his arm. "Ooh," he added, squeezing the firm bicep beneath his fingertips, "someone's boxing is paying off nicely."
"You can't flatter me out of this one, Kurt. It won't change anything. I'm going gray. I'm getting old," he sighed again. "I thought I'd have more time before I had to worry about this, you know?"
"God, Blaine, you're thirty, not ninety. And in case you forgot, I'm no younger than you are, so watch who you're calling old," he threatened with no heat behind his words. "I'm going to go gray at some point, too. Geez, you've seen my dad. Now there's something to worry about!"
Kurt shuddered, wondering when his job of cheering up Blaine had resulted in making depressing realizations about his own aging.
"Well, at least if you start to go gray, no one will notice right away, with your light hair," Blaine argued, determined to hold onto his status as the injured party for just a little while longer. "With me, one light hair is like a neon sign."
Kurt decided it was time to change his tack. Hopping down from the counter, he circled behind Blaine and wrapped his arms around his bare middle, catching and holding his gaze through the mirror. "Ok, so maybe I'll have a little easier time hiding the first couple of grays. But they'll come. And I haven't escaped unscathed so far, either. You think I don't see the little lines around my eyes? Those are laugh lines, Blaine. Laugh lines."
Blaine looked at him incredulously. Kurt cut off his protest by resting his chin on Blaine's shoulder and squeezing him a little. "I blame you for those, by the way," he continued.
"Why me?" Blaine asked.
"Nobody makes me laugh or smile as much as you do," Kurt answered sweetly, turning to give Blaine a peck on the jaw and finally getting a tiny smile out of him.
"Sorry, and not just for the laugh lines," Blaine replied, bringing his arms up to cross over Kurt's. "I guess I kind of freaked out there for a moment."
"Just a little," Kurt said, glancing down at the counter. "But really, Blaine, a Sharpie? Seriously?"
Blaine chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah, probably not one of my better ideas. I just panicked and wanted to cover it up before you saw."
Kurt saw something unsaid in Blaine's eyes before his own flew open wide in realization.
"Blaine, do you think I won't find you attractive if you start to show your age?" The hesitation on Blaine's face gave Kurt his answer. "Baby, no," Kurt reassured him, turning him around by his shoulders and hugging him tightly. "Blaine," Kurt admonished, holding him even closer. "I don't care if you go gray. I hope with all my heart you and I are together long enough to see each other go gray and get wrinkles and everything that goes with it."
Blaine pulled back to look his husband in the eye. "Wrinkles? With the two hundred dollars' worth of moisturizers you have on that vanity? Never."
Kurt smiled at the teasing tone of Blaine's voice, hoping that it meant Blaine's fears had been allayed. He cupped Blaine's face in his hands, then, looking deeply into his eyes. "I love you so, so much, Blaine Anderson-Hummel," he whispered. Blaine smiled, knowing that Kurt used his full name when he was feeling particularly emotional.
"I love you too, Kurt Anderson-Hummel," he replied, barely getting the words out before Kurt's lips were on his. The kiss lingered for a few moments before their mouths parted with a soft sound. Kurt threaded his fingers through Blaine's thick, curly hair. "You know," he said looking from Blaine's face to his hair and back down again, "you'd make quite the gorgeous silver fox, my dear."
"Hmm, you think?" Blaine answered, his own hands resting lightly on Kurt's hips.
"Oh, absolutely."
"Ugh, I'm not ready for silver fox yet," Blaine groaned, dropping his head back momentarily. "I'm going to have to dye my hair, aren't I?"
Kurt tilted his head to one side in thought. "That's up to you, B," he finally answered seriously. "I don't think you'd need to, but I don't want you to be unhappy with the way you look." He smirked a little as he rubbed his hands up and down Blaine's arms slowly and added, "I wanna make sure that you're comfortable, so I can be comfortable."
Blaine full out laughed at that. "Using my own words against me? From, like, fifteen years ago?" Blaine shook his head. "No fair." Kurt just shrugged nonchalantly.
"Come on, you," Blaine chuckled, patting Kurt on the backside lightly. "Let's get to bed."
They disentangled themselves, and Kurt let Blaine walk out of the room ahead of him. "You know, you'd also look amazing with the salt and pepper thing going on, like George Clooney," he mused aloud.
"I appreciate the sentiment, Kurt, but I'm not exactly George Clooney," Blaine said over his shoulder.
Kurt took a quick step to catch up with Blaine and snatch the towel from his waist. "You're right," he said, looking appreciatively at the sight before him. "Clooney doesn't have that ass."
A/N: So a week or so ago, I had an idea for a story in which Blaine finds his first gray hair. I didn't have much except for the Sharpie and the last line about Clooney. The very next day, the prolific and talented fbeauchamphartz posted "By a Hair," which just so happens to be a lovely story about Kurt finding his first gray hair. I thought, well…so much for that. However, I mentioned it in my review of her story and she encouraged me to write it anyway. Hope it didn't disappoint! Be kind to yourselves and to one another.