Blaine let himself into their apartment, being as quiet as possible. He was home hours before Kurt was expecting him, and he could not wait to see Kurt's reaction. This never happened, they never wrapped early. But they had, just this once, on this special day of all special days they had sent him home six freaking hours early and he had almost ran out of the lot. The fates were really smiling on him because he was able to get an earlier flight and now he was going to get to spend the rest of the day with the man that he loved instead of just the night. Blaine was almost deliriously happy, he couldn't wait to begin.
He checked first in the kitchen, expecting Kurt to be there obsessing over recipes and chopping veggies into bite sized pieces for the party tonight, but although there were clear signs of frantic party planning activity, Kurt wasn't there. He tiptoed into the living room, and there too were signs of activity, furniture moved to make more room in the center for dancing, new flower arrangements on the end tables. Blaine began to feel a sense of disappointment; his surprise would be ruined if Kurt was out shopping or having lunch with a friend. Blaine pulled out his cell phone, planning to track Kurt's whereabouts.
Then he heard him, Kurt's voice was raised and he was quite obviously irritated with someone. And the sound was coming from the bedroom. Blaine kicked off his shoes so he would make absolutely no noise, although he doubted Kurt could hear him over all the ruckus he was making, and very slowly opened the bedroom door.
Kurt's laptop was on the bed and Kurt was standing beside it, his normally pale face the color of an almost-too-ripe tomato. He was talking through clenched teeth to the woman on the other side of the screen.
"You are not going to leave it like this. You are not going to ruin my song. You are going to fix this now."
The object of Kurt's frustration smiled back at home in her normally calm way "I am not the one that ruined it. There is no way to make that line flow properly as written and we both know it."
Blaine folded his arms as he watched the scene, not the least bit perturbed. He had witnessed untold scenes just like this in the last seven years. It always worked out in the end.
"The verse is perfect. It says exactly what I need the character to say in exactly the way I need him to say it. And it has to stand exactly as it is because I am the writer and I say so. It's your job to match the verse with your melody, it doesn't work the other way around."
"And I am not ruining a perfect good melody because you feel the need to shove two unneeded words into the second verse. "
Kurt literally growled and spun around. His face went through an instant, complete transformation the second he spied Blaine. The look of delighted surprise on Kurt's face was exactly the reaction Blaine was been gleefully anticipating during his long plane ride home.
"Oh my God, how on earth did you manage this?" Kurt asked as he skipped the few feet that separated them and wrapped himself in Blaine's arms. "I can't believe you are here. I thought you wouldn't be here for hours yet."
Blaine kissed Kurt, and hugged him closer. He had been gone five days, five long and lonely days and every moment of every day he had wished he was here, in Kurt's arms. They had gotten older, but this feeling, this passion, the way he felt when Kurt's lips took possession of his –
Several piano keys were pushed at once, loudly and insistently. "I hate to break up this touching homecoming but we aren't finished here and in case your love addled mind has forgotten the showcase is in two weeks."
Kurt smiled ruefully at Blaine. "I'm sorry, I had no idea you'd be home early. I was planning to be through with all this before you got here. Give me a half hour to straighten her out, an hour at the most – "
"Listen pretty boy" came the voice from the laptop. The voice belonged to Kurt's writing partner of seven years, Steph Downing. Somehow Kurt had managed to find himself a writing partner that was just as annoying as Rachel had been in her teens, except this was a woman full grown, five years older than he was as a matter of fact. But she was as talented as Rachel in her own way – she could write any melody from a love song to the raunchiest of joke tunes to a melody so dark and beautiful that it left you feeling lonely and forlorn. It was a shame really that someone with so much musical talent sang so much like Sugar did, a fact she was brilliantly proving at the moment by shouting/slurring the words to the song that they had been debating a few seconds ago.
"Might only need ten if I kill her quickly." Kurt added, giving Blaine a wicked smile and one more kiss before he headed back to the computer. Well, maybe it was two kisses.
"I know how important this showcase is, so take all the time that you need." Blaine told Kurt as he took off his bow tie and bent down to remove his socks. "I am going to take a shower anyway and then I will help you get ready for the party." Blaine sat down on the bed and began the process of pulling off his pants, knowing full well that Kurt's entire attention was now back on him. "Don't mind me; just go about your business. I will be in the shower and out of your way in just a moment." Blaine pulled his shirt over his head and was standing in front of Kurt, and in fact in front of Steph who was so amused by the whole transaction that she forgot she was supposed to be annoying Kurt, completely naked. And he hadn't been lying, he was very happy to see Kurt as Kurt could now plainly see. Without taking his eyes off of Blaine, Kurt reached behind and shut the lid to the computer without saying a word to Steph. Blaine had never seen anyone undress so quickly.
