It's Carbon Chemistry
"Honestly, Kurt, it's just a flight of stairs! We are forced to traverse it almost five times a day anyways; it's not that hard to walk!"
"Easy for you to say," he said miserably, holding his stomach and scrunching up his face. "I don't know what's wrong with me, but something's definitely going on."
"Do you need to go to the clinic? I can bring you there." He reached across the short expanse of space between them and soothingly smoothed out the wrinkles on the other boy's forehead.
Kurt shuddered involuntarily. He couldn't help the reaction, although he desperately wished he could to save himself the embarrassment that would come one day when Blaine would reach to casually touch him and he would shake with some anomalous longing, and then Blaine would be convinced that he was dating a complete freak and run, taking all of Kurt's baggage with him. After all, they were boyfriends now, he should be used to and absolutely thrilled about this broken barrier they had conquered (which he completely was). Instead of the awkward limitations of friendship, a whole new world of touch and feel bloomed before them. Every new sensation of yearning and desire that he could ever want stood before him, demurely inquiring about his health. But he still couldn't shake the feeling that they hadn't fully conquered the awkwardness yet. He couldn't shake the feeling that it was his fault, either.
"What class is next?"
"You have Calculus next, I believe."
Kurt feigned coughing and dramatically fainted.
From the floor he weakly whispered, "You should bring me to clinic. And walk slowly!"
Blaine laughed and scooped Kurt off the floor, hitching him onto his back. Kurt started to loop his arms around his neck, but awkwardly let them limp by his sides when his timidity took over.
Blaine twisted his neck around to stare quizzically at Kurt.
"Kurt, you will fall off before we even get there! You have to hold on; it's a rule of nature!"
Kurt coughed faintly again, hiding the blush rising to his cheeks.
"Oh yeah, of course. Uh, yeah." He awkwardly clasped his arms around Blaine's neck.
"That's not good enough," Blaine teased, reaching back around to ruffle Kurt's hair. "Even if you hate me that much," he winked, "you have to pretend like I'm the last person on Earth and without me you'd die of loneliness and starvation of social interaction. Capisci?"
"No, you're right, I hate you. I wouldn't hang onto you for all the happiness in the world!" Kurt supposed, though, that he was already kind of holding onto all the happiness he could ever obtain in the world anyways.
"Shut up, Kurt. You know you love me."
"Whatever, Anderson. If I agree to capriciously declare you to be the best thing in my world and the source of all my happiness and joy, will you just take me to the clinic already?" He was firm in his resolve, yet hesitant in his actions as he entwined his arms around Blaine and rested his head against his shoulder. He was quiet for a moment as he rested there, smelling stiff fabric and the distinct aroma of his cologne.
"Deal." Blaine, kind of endearingly and immensely embarrassingly, cleared the hallways as he ferried his diffident boyfriend through the pristine halls of Dalton Academy to the surprisingly grubby clinic. Hm, Kurt thought, not what you would think from Dalton's meticulous hygiene record.
They were greeted by an old woman with severe features: a sharp nose, pronounced wrinkles, and the individual pout of someone who knew the pains of having to argue with immature minds.
"Why are you here?" She didn't even look up from the neon green clipboard she was scribbling furiously onto.
"Well, polite miss, there seems to be an issue with my stomach. If you would so care to attend to that issue I'd be most indebted."
"Kurt," Blaine whispered warningly. He poked his rib and shook his head. However, Kurt was fairly sure it was just for show, because he could recognize an evasive joy underneath his stern demeanor.
"Look, is it a life or death situation? If not, then I have other students that have more urgent situations."
"Well, excuse me. We'll just leave then. Good day."
Kurt spun on his heel and exited, carting a dazed Blaine behind him.
"Oh my God, Kurt, you are amazing."
Kurt rotated slowly, drinking in the look of admiration on his boyfriend's face. Boyfriend. Wow, how he loved to say that.
"It was nothing though, honestly." He shifted uncomfortably.
"No, Kurt, you are seriously amazing." He paused for a second, gazing at Kurt through his peripheral vision as he pretended to examine a trophy in a case nearby. There was a slight smile in his features.
"Come here."
"What?"
"Come here!"
Kurt cautiously closed the small distance between them.
Blaine leaned forward slowly, capturing Kurt's lips with his.
"That is for how adorable you were back there."
He leaned in again, depositing a relatively chaste kiss on his lips again.
"That's because you've been acting awkward lately."
Another one, more slowly and pronounced.
"That's because I want you to know that you don't have to be awkward around me."
Again and again he kept depositing kisses on his lips, with a more prominent upward curve to his lips after each one.
Kurt pulled away, exhaling rapidly.
"You really enjoy messing with me, don't you?"
"Does this bother you?" He leaned in again; Kurt could feel his warm breath tingling against his lips, lingering with a warm longing in those small milliseconds before their mouths connected.
Kurt acted quickly, rushing up towards Blaine's mouth, asserting aggression in his approach.
They broke apart, both exhaling heavily now. "Does that bother you?"
Blaine's smile was unnaturally euphoric. "Nope. Not at all."
"That's what I thought," Kurt replied, grinning and taking Blaine's hand as they walked towards his Calculus class in that all too familiar stupor they were always seemed to be in the middle of. That completely pointless one because Kurt had tried so hard to convince himself that he never needed a boy to feel happy, and he didn't and doesn't, yet the presence of one didn't hurt. They were in that stage, where everything was wonderful and happy and good and nothing could be better than having a boy that loved you (they'd say it one day, Kurt was positive) by your side. One that could notice when you were insecure and awkward yet somehow twist that into a sweet reward. He really didn't know how he had gotten this lucky, but he wasn't complaining.
As they approached the staircase, Kurt surreptitiously noticed that it was the same staircase he had descended when he had first met Blaine. They were the same cold marble steps, yet the memories that flooded his mind were anything but. They set a rosy atmosphere about the place. It was like comparing the brilliance of a diamond to it's very carbon dust. Sure, the lowly dust may have been the diamond's predecessor in it's evolution, but that doesn't have to imply that there's anything lesser in it. It was just rough and unpolished. Yet, time inevitably crafts it into a beautiful, brilliant stone. It was always there, it just needed to be discovered.