I've been really loving the multi-part, multi-Warbler, long, fluffy one-shots lately. Like… There was Elevator and then there's Tuck Me In and they're the work I'm most proud of currently, so I figured I'd write another one.
So now I'm just going to sit here at this word document until I think of something…
Oh, brilliant. I've got it! LET'S DO THIS.
"Hey, are you guys all packed? Cause David and I are going to put our stuff out in my car, if you want to get that done now," Wes offered, poking his head into Nick and Jeff's dorm, the two were staring down at some very stuffed-looking suitcases. Every winter break, Wevid, Niff, Klaine, and Trad would drive to the little A-frame cabin David's family owned over in the Poconos. They went in the summer for the lake and hiking, but the tiny house was also incredibly close to three ski mountains, making it ideal for a winter vacation. Jeff looked up from his luggage and gave him a smile; his nose and cheeks were red in the freezing temperature of the dorm, the color standing out due to his his bright pink sweat shirt and tight, matching beanie. His hat plastered his blond hair around his face.
"Actually, I am. Nick's stressing, though, so I guess I'll wait for him…" he replied, and Nick whirled around, still in his Dalton blazer from their final day of school and his hair a matted pile on the top of his head. Wes knew for a fact that the younger boy ran his fingers through it when anxious.
"I am not stressing!" he exclaimed in a way that made him most definitely seem like he was. Jeff rolled his eyes so Nick couldn't see, but a loving smile adorned his face, and Wes wondered just when his two babies were going to get together already. "I just… I have too much stuff for this one teeny bag!" Wes hid a smile behind his hand as Jeff shook his head affectionately.
"Why don't you just pack another one?" Wes asked, and Jeff facepalmed, his thin blond bangs spraying everywhere in the breeze it created.
"Dude, why did you have to ask?" he asked, and Nick looked at Wes desperately.
"Because I only have a few more things! I can't put them in a different one cause they won't fill it up, but I can't put them in the one I already have packed because then it won't zipper!" he yelped, and Wes looked at Jeff, unsure if Nick was being serious or not, and the blonde just nodded. This wasn't too surprising, though. Nick liked things just so. Jeff was more sporadic, all over the place, and… insane. Nick was a worrier, Jeff was pretty chill. Nick was pristine, Jeff was a mess. Nick was methodical, Jeff threw everything out the window. Again, Wes wondered just when exactly they were going to become a couple.
"And nothing can go in my bag, of course," Jeff explained, interrupting Wes's thoughts, "because my bag is where things crawl into to die, get lost, and ever be unpacked." It was Nick's turn to nod in confirmation, and Wes laughed.
"Awesome. Don't stay up too late worrying about it, Nick. David and I are leaving at seven tomorrow morning so we can get there by midafternoon," he advised and ducked out into the hallway to find David and Blaine, the latter struggling to carry at least six bags of various sizes. Wes quirked an eyebrow. "Are all those for you?" he asked, and David snickered while Blaine looked distressed.
"Actually, no. Almost all of these are Kurt's. I'm carrying them out for him," he replied, and it seemed at all of the extra luggage was taking its toll on Blaine, his shoulders weighed down and his back slumped. Wes noticed that five of the bags were all from the same, matching set –tan with red and black plaid- and figured he probably should have known. He also wondered just when Kurt and Blaine were going to get married, their interest in each other about as obvious as his two precious babies across the hall.
"It's not going in my car unless Kurt wants to pay for gas money," Wes replied, and Blaine pressed his lips together.
"That's what David said. Don't worry, we're riding with Thad and Trent," he answered and then started off towards the parking lot, the weight of all the suitcases clearly too much for him to stand around with any longer. Wes and David followed after him in comfortable silence. David had never been much of a talker, and that's probably why he and Wes had made friends in the first place. Sometimes Wes just liked quiet or a good listener. David was good at giving him both.
He had a feeling this was going to be a really good winter break.
All eight boys somehow managed to make it down to the parking lot with both cars packed by seven. Jeff and Nick immediately sat themselves in Wes's car, not caring to be there for the planning of their eight hour trip, proving yet again just how dependent they were and just how much they were the babies of the Warblers. Kurt and Blaine stayed out while Trent and Thad conferred over the best route to take to David's cabin, despite both being without their licenses just yet.
They were all clothed rather snuggly. Kurt was probably the best dressed out of them all, naturally wearing silk pajamas and looking damn good in them. That boy just belonged in fancy clothes. The rest of them seemed pretty lazy in comparison. They all were in big sweatshirts to fight the cold, pajama pants, and Wes was pretty sure Thad had a pair of Crocs on with socks, but his pants were covering them a little too conveniently to tell, and it would be cruel to ask in front of Kurt.
"Route I-70 into I-76?" Thad asked, pulling out his Garmin, and David checked his own GPS, his thumbs just peeking out of his too-big North Face sleeves to work the device.
"Yeah, that sounds good," he said before his fell a bit. "Gah, why do we do this every year? I don't think I can take eight hours in a car with Nick and Jeff. They're going to drive me insane…" Trent walked over and peered into Wes's car, breath puffing out around him in the cold like a steamboat. He tapped on the window glass and smiled.
"I don't think you have to worry," Trent told the very anxious looking David. "They've conked out on us." Within seconds, Thad, Kurt, Blaine, Wes, and David had all crowed around the car to see, slightly addicted to the look of a sleeping Nick and Jeff. They could be so… hard to keep up with during the day, that watching them sleep was a little bit… refreshing to say the least. Eventually they pulled away and decided that Wes and David would lead their parade of two and all piled into their cars, ready to head out for yet another vacation up at David's.
Thad rubbed his bleary eyes, the road through the woods to the Thompson's cabin unbearably long. He desperately needed to get out of the car and stretch his legs. It was obvious that his passengers were all getting antsy to get out as well. They had only stopped once for a quick and disgusting lunch from the nastiest roadside Burger King in existence; other than that, the boys had just randomly pulled over on the highway to switch drivers. Every time there was a twist in the road, Thad expected the little house to be just on the other side, but no. It seemed as if they were to be travelling until the last syllable of recorded time.
He couldn't help but gasp a bit like he had been holding his breath when he finally caught sight of the red-trimmed, triangular-shaped building.
"Oi," he barked, gaining the attention of the very bored looking boys in his car. "Here we are, mates," he informed them, parking in the driveway and throwing his car door open. "Get your things and head on in. Trent, if you wouldn't mind grabbing my stuff, it doesn't seem like Wes, David, Jeff, and Nick have gotten here yet, and someone has to start a fire if we don't want to all freeze our toes off."
"Anything for the Queen," Trent replied, mocking Thad's slight British accent. It always seemed to leak out of him the most when he was tired, despite not having lived there for about five years now. Thad threw a snowball at him as he got out of the car, quickly running into the cabin before Trent could get him back. He hiked through the freezing house to the side deck, gathering up a few logs from beneath the tarp shielding the wood pile from snow, and got his inner pyro on as he managed to start up in the furnace to heat the tiny cabin as Kurt, Blaine, and Trent unloaded the car.
"First come, first serve!" Blaine shouted, tearing through the common room to the iron, spiral stair case leading up to the loft with his duffle bag over one shoulder. Kurt shrugged and took off after him surprisingly quickly for a guy with five bags. Thad eyed his roommate.
"You know, there's only four beds up there…" he trailed off, and Trent finished for him.
"And Nick and Jeff will go ballistic if they don't get to sleep up top," he said resignedly, and rolled both his and Thad's suitcases into the rooms in the back of the house. Thad watched his little fire build and slowly added more wood to it until it grew into something substantial enough to make the house at least a bit toastier, listening to Blaine as he taught Kurt how to line the inside of his sleeping bag with a blanket, his voice travelling down from above. Jeff was the first person from the other car to burst into the cabin.
"Is there still a place for me and Nicky upstairs?" he asked, looking absolutely panicked, and Thad shook his head.
"No, man. Klaine, Trent and I are all already up there. Sorry." Jeff looked to be on the verge of tears, and a clueless but comforting Nick arrived just in time to pull him into a hug while Thad laughed. "Dude, just kidding, it's fine. Trent and I took the back room." The blonde's whole persona immediately seemed to perk up, and he dragged Nick up behind him to make themselves at home. Wes and David stomped in next, shaking snow off their boots.
"It's freezing in here," Wes complained, tightening the arms crossed over his chest. Thad rolled his eyes and gestured to the fire he was nursing into existence. Wes nodded resignedly before tugging his scarf on a bit tighter and taking his stuff to the last available bedroom. David chose to sit down next to Thad on the floor, looking into the dancing flames.
"Nice work," he complimented, and Thad felt fuzzy at the words. Yeah. His fire was pretty brilliant… "Although, this place won't really get warm until, like, tomorrow…" Thad hummed in agreement.
"Do you think the babies will be alright tonight? I mean, Blaine just showed Kurt the whole sleeping bag plus a blanket thing, and Nick and Jeff already know, but…" David frowned, clearly thinking.
"I would think so. But, I mean, they know where the trunk of blankets is upstairs, and I have a laundry basket full in the car if any of us need more. Plus, Niff just spent an hour in the car telling me what Nick filled his second suitcase with, God knows why Wes actually seemed interested or why they would feel the need to inform us, but he mentioned something about a few blankets and sweatshirts, so I think it'll be fine."
"Sounds like a plan," Thad replied, and stuffed another log in the fire.
Nick was spending a very long time sorting all of his things out in his space. "Nickpea, just put your suitcase at the foot of your bed and your sleeping bag on top, and your pillow at the head, and let's go skiing, okay?" he brainstormed, and Nick frowned.
"No, I have to put everything away," he replied, unpacking his suitcase and putting his clothes all in the dresser next to his bed. Jeff bit his lip, wondering if he should help or not and inevitably decided that he probably should, even if Nick would probably just yell at him for doing it wrong. Jeff was occasionally not very good at things, and it was really only a matter of time before Nick stopped tolerating him and threw him out with the garbage. Jeff mostly believed this because Nick was perfect and Jeff definitely wasn't. He pulled out a pile of t-shirts, and Nick pointed to the correct drawer.
"Do you even want to ski?" Jeff asked, taking out Nick's toiletry bag and carrying it over to the bathroom. Jeff had lived with Nick for a few years now, and he had gotten to the point where he could name everything inside of that bag without even looking. Nick probably would be able to do the same for him, if his wasn't such a cluttered mess.
The thing with being roommates: No privacy.
"Definitely," Nick answered, "I just can't leave without this place feeling all right and homey, you know?" he inquired, and Jeff nodded because he did know, and placed Nick's book on his bedside table, just where he kept it at home.
Kurt eyed the bunny hill skeptically, his calves already burning from being stuffed in his rented ski boots for what must have been only ten minutes but felt like an hour. "Blaine, I am the kind of person who goes to ski mountains to sit in the lodge and drink coffee in a cute scarf and watch people putter in and out with a book. Skiing will kill me." Blaine laughed, and Kurt narrowed his eyes. "No, I'm serious. I will fall, my ankle will break and flail upwards, and the blades on one of my skis will violently slice through my arm or neck and I will bleed out. My murder will be your fault."
"You're not going to die… Kurt," he said after a pregnant pause. A theme with him, Kurt had noticed. "Just put your skis in a pizza to go slow, and french-fry to go fast. Don't let your skis touch or cross, lean whichever way you want to go to turn, keep your knees bent and your body perpendicular with the hill, and the more you turn sideways, the slower you will go," he explained, and Kurt couldn't help but blanch a bit. That was a lot to remember, and despite the bunny hill being flooded with lights, it still felt too dark to be learning how to ski. Still, Blaine had seemed so excited, and Kurt had never been one to deny him anything, especially when he was looking painfully cute in a puffy little snow coat/snow pants ensemble. He had on one of those little hunter hats with the flaps on the side, and it made his cheeks look even bigger and more pinch-able than usual.
Needless to say, Kurt was having difficulty containing his squeals. Seriously, his body was, like… shuddering with the effort.
"Just try to follow me," Blaine said kindly, lowering his goggles over his eyes and very, very slowly heading down the hill. This gave Kurt the confidence to start, because he could walk faster than this, and all he really had to do was follow the tracks made by Blaine's skis, right? Right. Of course, the whole affair was rather bumbling and ungraceful indeed, and by the time he had managed to successfully make it down the slope, Kurt's nerves were completely frayed. "You did great!" Blaine exclaimed. "Again?"
"Again," Kurt agreed meekly.
Like usual, the line for the ski lift was absolutely mad crazy, and while normally it wasn't an issue, this time the mess at the bottom of the hill had caused Nick and Jeff to be on separate lift chairs, and Nick was flipping out about it. The other boy was twisting around in his chair to look back at his blonde Warbler, poles poking Trent in all the wrong places (were there even right places to be stabbed?) and skis tangling beneath him. Trent put up with this for about five seconds up the ten minute ride to the top of the huge hill before deciding he couldn't take it anymore and that the best course of action would be to distract. Fortunately enough, Trent knew the only way to distract Nick from Jeff.
More Jeff.
"So, Nick," Trent started off slowly, forcing him to lower a pole and stop squirming with his thickly padded gloves smacking him whenever he moved in a way that made the chair shake in a manner he didn't like. "When are you going to ask Jeff out?" he asked, and Nick stilled, a miraculous thing coming from him, indeed. Nick frowned.
"Never," he answered, and Trent rolled his eyes.
"It's not like anyone else is attempting to undress you with their eyes from across the room," he snapped back sassily because it was in Trent's nature to bring sarcasm into every conversation. "And also, I'm pretty sure your legs open every time he walks into a room." Nick smacked him in the arm, ever the firecracker.
"Shut up, he's down wind. He could hear you," he hissed, but then the younger boy's face fell, and he looked like a little kid. "I don't think that he actually likes me that much. Or at least… maybe before, but not now. He's all…" Nick's face screwed up in confusion. "Hesitant." Trent snorted.
"Yeah, he's hesitant because if he lets himself get too carried away, he knows he'll have to rush off every five minutes for an ice cold shower," he retorted, and Nick smacked him again.
"Stop, I'm serious. It's like he's worried whenever we hang out. I mean… he's still Jeff and crazy and annoyingly lovable," Trent gagged, "But there's something missing." Nick muttered, and Trent rolled his eyes.
"Well, I certainly haven't noticed anything," he said, earning another hit to the arm.
"You wouldn't. Only I would. I'm Three, remember?" Trent hummed.
"How could I not?"
David woke up to bouncing on both sides of the matress. Wes, he cursed inwardly, blaming the boy he was sharing a bed with, until he realized… two… Nick and Jeff. "Wake up, Davey! It's snowing! It's snowing, and the flakes are as big as my face!" came Jeff's excited voice, and David merely rolled over in bed, trying to ignore the mattress shaking from the two high schoolers jumping on it. Another voice penetrated his eardrums.
"Yeah, David, you've got to wake up and come out in the snow with us!" David flipped around in bed, prepared to tell Nick and Jeff just what he thought of snow, and flakes, and their faces, and them, but his eyes fell on a smirking Wes holding out a cup of hot coffee out for him, and suddenly David didn't absolutely abhor the idea of getting up anymore.
Thad hunkered down beneath the snow bank he had serving as a fort for him. He was busy packing ammo for Trent to use, his unofficial buddy for all the paired activities during the vacation, including snowball fights. It was sort of like an unspoken Warbler Rule, that Wes was always with David, that Nick was always with Jeff, and –more recently- Blaine was always with Kurt. Thad peaked around his fort, looking for prey, when a snowball hit him square in the face. "Ha, your face, Harwood!" came Blaine's excited yelp from somewhere in the woods, and Thad frowned, before an onslaught of ammunition flew over his head, Trent being the one to fire everything they had at Klaine's hiding spot, succeeding in nailing both boys multiple times with excellent precision.
"No, your face, Anderson! You and Hummel can't even aim enough to properly get food in your mouth!" he screamed back. Thad laughed.
"Yeah! And if you guys are hungry you can suck my-" Trent elbowed him hard in the sides.
"Dude, there could be children around," he said with a glare, pushing him to the ground. Thad immediately launched himself at Trent's legs and brought him down with him into the snow, throwing some in the other boy's face. His legs burned like hell from skiing the entirety of the night before, but he still wanted to play and go again later this afternoon, so he ignored it in favor of inhaling some Advil when they hiked back to the house.
"This is the woods, looser, there aren't any kids here," he said with a laugh, his 'r's near disappearing due to the way his slight twinge of an accent could creep up on him whenever he got emotional. Trent flipped him over so that he was sitting on top, and stuffed snow down his shirt.
"You never know! There could be children hiding behind the trees, freezing and cannibalistic and ready to eat out our insides and wear our pelts to keep warm!" he screamed hysterically, and Thad shivered violently against the snow melting on his bare skin but then started laughing uncontrollably, half at Trent's ridiculous hypotheticals, and half at the face he was wearing when he shouted them out.
"Oh, God! You're so bloody stupid, now they know we're onto them! Run! Run for the cabin!" he shrilled, pushing Trent off of him and stumbling into a run. The other boy tumbled behind, both of them laughing too hard to walk straight and ignoring the snowballs pelting them from all sides.
"Kurt, I think you're ready for a green dot hill today," Blaine mused as he waited in line to rent skis with his roommate. Kurt frowned, and Blaine immediately started explaining before he could ask. "The green dot stands for easiest. It's not much different than the bunny hill, I promise, and all you have to do is follow me, okay?" Kurt rolled his eyes.
"I'm pretty sure that's the worst idea I've ever heard," he replied, absolutely hating himself and his father's finances at the moment, as he was the only Warbler who didn't have his own skis and hadn't spent endless time on a ski hill before. He was only here this week because was Blaine was paying for his ski time as an early Christmas present. It's not like the Hummel-Hudson household was completely broke or struggling; Kurt didn't live in squalor, but in comparison to his new friends, he might as well be. Apparently, David was the only one to use his mountainside cabin, and Kurt couldn't understand why his parents kept spending money on it for two long weekends a year.
"No, it's not," Blaine said, eyes sparkling. Sometimes he looked more like an excited puppy than a boy. "It'll be great, and you've totally mastered the bunny hill. You can so do this!" he declared, and Kurt felt himself flush a bit. Blaine complimented him too much. He grabbed Blaine's puffy mitten in his skinny glove.
"Fine," Kurt replied readily, grinning a bit, "If Master thinks I'm prepared sufficiently, I will obey," he sniffed, and Blaine bumped into him a bit, smile growing on his face.
"Don't ever say I don't treat my slaves well."
Wes frowned as Nick and Jeff tore off down the hill again and sped after them. "They're insane!" he shouted back to David, who was a little late to speed up and now behind him on the slope. He wasn't even sure how Nick and Jeff had managed to stay together all the time, their trips to the bottom of the mountain sporadic at best. One minute they'd be slugs, the next they'd be flying away, and the next dead stopping –distracted by a hat or a glove of some such lying in the snow. It made them impossible to keep up with, and Wes wasn't sure how they managed to do everything in unison.
Eventually, David fell in line with him, and Wes looked over. "They're the babies," David reminded him like he always did when Wes was strung out on Niff problems. He sighed heavily in response, and in return, David knocked their skis together. Wes wobbled for a minute before pushing David on the shoulder. David ran over Wes's ski, but immediately regretted the idea when Wes lost his balance and fell on top of him.
They both tumbled to the ground, fake powdery snow and the real stuff flying up with them, cheeks stinging from the cold. They struggled to untangle themselves, Wes at an awkward angle to remove his skis and David at an awkward angle to help him. "This is your fault," Wes huffed, but he was smiling, and David threw snow in his face.
"Stop, no it's not," he replied, and both boys immediately held their breath as a skier sped up right, right next to them.
"Are you guys alright?" Thad asked, and Wes glared.
"Thad, you almost killed us. And no, we're not alright, help us up," he answered as Trent pulled up, both boys instantly moving to pull them apart and pick them off the ground, an awkward affair to be sure on skis. Eventually they made it to the ski lift, for an awaiting and very nervous looking Nick and Jeff. Unfortunately they had to restart the whole process when the two youngest boys knocked them all down with their relieved hugs.
Thad eyed the stranger next to him carefully. He was pretty shady, a balding middle-aged man with a belly the size of a toilet bowl hidden away under his shirt. His face was beat red, but he appeared nice enough for Thad to deal with the few minutes it would take to get to the top of the mountain. He shuffled up to the line where the chair would swing around to pick him up. "Watch yourself," the stranger warned him as the seat approached, and naturally, Thad took this as the opportunity to open the floodgates and talk like his life depended on it.
"My name's Thad," he started, "I'm vacationing up here for five days with my friends in David's cabin. It's so awesome; do you live here? If you don't, I highly recommend it, they've got a great lake around here somewhere, and plus all this skiing is brilliant. The only problem is that his house is heated with this little wood furnace and someone always has to be watching it cause the whole thing is made of wood. So that means it's not on right now and we're going to get home and it's gonna be bloody cold, only I don't mind it so much because I get to start the fire, and make it, and watch it, so that's really fun, especially cause my dad always is the one to start the fire in the fireplace at home, even though I'm really good at it-"
"Yeah, that's nice kid," the man said in an effort to shut him up, but sometimes Thad got talking and there was just no real way to get him quiet. The stranger's grimace as he continued didn't deter him at all.
"Oh! You know what you would like? Or, at least, I bet you would cause of, well…" Thad gestured awkwardly at the man's general largeness in the stomach area. "There's the best wing place around here, and whenever we come David orders, like, six different kinds which sounds like a lot but isn't cause there's eight of us boys, and just because half of us exactly are gay and we're all in a private school show choir, it doesn't mean that we can't eat like regular guys; although, most of our parents kill us when we eat with our fingers, like mine sure do and so does Wes's –I think that's why he's so uptight all the time-so we don't really eat messily. Kurt doesn't eat messily at all, and he'll probably use a fork and knife I bet for them, but his dad actually does; I don't know how that happened; you'd think he'd be slobby, but he's not-"
Thad cut off when the ski lift gave a jolt and jerked him forward into the metal bar keeping him in the seat. He could feel his face pale as the chord above shuddered to a stop. "The one ride I'm stuck on the longest…" the man next to him muttered bitterly, but Thad was too far gone to take the insult.
"Oh, God!" he gasped, making no effort to hide his fear as he looked over the toes of his skis to see the ground way too far below him. "Oh, God, we're going to die!" he screamed, causing the stranger next to him to wince away, and Trent to whip around in the seat in front of him.
"We're not gonna die!" Trent yelled back to him in that angry, sassy way he had of yelling. "Stop being dumb!" The other passenger in Trent's lift looked extremely nervous and unnerved by the screaming boy next to her.
"You're being dumb!" Thad cried in response. "The ski lift stopped!" Before Trent could respond, his glare making it evident that whatever he had to say would be mean, another voice joined the party.
"Would you both just shut up?" Wes shouted from behind, seemingly incredibly annoyed. "This happens all the time. Get used to it!" he declared, and then settled back into his seat next to David again. Trent and Thad immediately quieted.
"WE LIKE SHOUTING, TOO!" Nick and Jeff exclaimed from behind Wes, sending the whole lift into a fit of giggles.
"Guys, I have a question that's going to sound goofy, but I'm actually serious," Blaine announced while he somehow managed to eat a chicken wing dapperly. The hell…? All of his friends looked up from their own plates and eyed him warily. Blaine took a deep breath. "Okay, so I found the Happy Days board game under my bed up in the loft, and I was wondering if-"
"Oh, God, no," Trent answered before he could ask. "We are so not playing strip Happy Days." Blaine looked crestfallen.
"Oh, come on, please? It's been on my bucket list since I watched through Friends!" His request was met mostly with frowns, but he had managed to convince at least one person.
"We're doing it!" Jeff exclaimed, so ecstatic that he popped up from his seat at the table and knocked his chair back. "I mean, we're on vacation, and we're friends, and it's perfect, oh wait- we should let some snow into the house to make it more real-" Jeff said, moving for the door, but Wes pulled him back with a glare. Unfortunately, just because he could stop him from freezing the house and ruining the floors, it didn't mean he couldn't stop Nick from joining his and Blaine's side, and soon –don't ask any of them how it happened- they were all seated around Happy Days on the cold hardwood floor.
"This was the worst idea ever," Kurt said decidedly as he took off his last sock and handed it over to Nick. "This house is absolutely freezing." Blaine and Jeff looked over at him, eyes wide in agreement. As the ones who had pressured everyone to start this stupid game up, they had already lost their sweatshirts and pants. Sitting in nothing but a long-sleeved t-shirt and boxers could not be fun. Kurt couldn't help but notice that most of Jeff's clothes were in Nick's pile though, folded of course…
"No, it's fun," Wes said, even though it was determined that he was forced to slip off his jeans. "At least I get to see Blaine turn blue!" Blaine glared, but seemed happy enough. All eight boys took their turns, and soon the last roll had been played, resulting in Trent finally –finally having to take off a shoe. He had always been a master at strip games, and they may have resented him a bit for it.
"Can I have my clothes now?" Jeff asked, shivering and looking for all the more like he regretted his decision to play the godforsaken game. Nick smiled.
"Sure," he replied to the groans of all their friends, but at least Jeff seemed grateful.
David awaken the next morning by a hard pillow to the face, and an unfortunately chipper Wes dragging him out of bed to make pancakes for people that weren't him. He squinted down at the four pans in front of him, flipping pancakes when necessary and completely avoiding everything that wasn't sleep-standing. Wes flung blueberries in some and chocolate chips in others, but the real problem was that he continued to fill up the pans with pancake batter, even when David really just wanted to go to bed. Everything hurt from skiing, and he still was planning on going later that afternoon.
"Thank you, Davey!" chorused Nick and Jeff from the table, but David couldn't be bothered to hear them, instead just flipping pancakes methodically. Eventually Kurt and Blaine came down and shared a plate instead of each using their own, and David was not prepared to deal with their doe eyes so early in the morning.
"We'll make it, I promise," Wes assured him before leaving the kitchen, probably to get more pancake batter with David's luck this morning, and leaving him there to flip and flip and flip and flip…
"What are they doing up there?" Trent asked curiously, watching Nick and Jeff do some hellish dance on their skis. Thad merely shrugged in response, oddly quiet when skiing. "Let's check it out," he suggested, and straightened out his skis and pointed down the hill to catch up. At first, he thought he heard them shouting some weird kind of chant, but then he picked out a tune and recognized the song.
"They're doing the Time Warp," Thad announced, and Trent looked over to see that his friend looked a bit shocked, understandably, and he rolled his eyes. "I'm so not surprised…" Trent nodded in response and watched as Nick and Jeff somehow managed to nail all the steps, jumping to the left, kicking to the right, putting their hands on their hips and their knees inside. He averted his eyes when it came to the pelvic thrust, having no need to be driven insane, but turned his attention back to them as they did the Time Warp again. He swerved up behind them.
"Are you guys seriously doing this right now?" he asked, and Nick kept singing while Jeff answered him.
"Yeah, man. You should join!"
Trent just shook his head, marveling at how perfect the two boys were for each other, and fell back with Thad, not leaving without shouting, "You two are made for each other! Please have gaybies!" and watching for the blush that instantly reddened both of their faces. "They're like little tomatoes," he told Thad, who laughed as they worked their way down the mountain.
"Let's do this," Kurt said with a determined little huff, and he donned his ski goggles, and took off shuffling down the ski lift runway, bracing himself a little too much for the seat when it came around. Blaine giggled as he pulled down the safety bar. Like… Actually giggled.
"You're so funny at getting on these things," he said, and Kurt humphed indignantly, but the chill of the air so high above the trees that shielded them previously from the wind got to him and his pride, forcing him to scoot over a little closer to Blaine. He watched the other boy's face carefully to see how he would react to the sudden closeness, and determined that while he looked a bit startled, he was most definitely okay with it, seeing as he scooted right up next to him in response. Blaine cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um… It's a really nice night," he said, uncomfortable, and Kurt looked down at his feet, trying to do so without looking at the ground below. No need to psych himself out…
"Yeah, it's been really great weather all this time. It's sad that tomorrow's our last day to ski…" he replied, honestly a bit depressed… But they had been skiing all day for three days now if you counted the one they arrived on. Kurt crossed his arms and leaned into Blaine a little more. "It's freezing up here." Blaine swallowed loudly.
"Uh-huh," the soloist answered, but he seemed distracted. "Kurt?"
The boy in question twisted in his seat to look Blaine in the eyes, frowning a bit. He sounded incredibly serious, and that was always a tricky thing with Blaine Anderson. "Yeah?" he answered, a bit uncertain about the whole ride now that he realized just how close he and Blaine were, their faces near touching. Blaine didn't respond, just looked at him for a minute, liking his lips a bit, and Kurt couldn't help but lean in, the action so inviting. Blaine whispered his name again.
"Kurt?" he spoke softly, and maybe that should have stopped him, but he was already closing in.
"Yeah," he replied on instinct, basically ignoring Blaine in favor of slowly bringing their lips together. Blaine's face was cold against his, but Kurt didn't mind, instead bringing his glove hands up to potentially warm him. They fell into rhythm quickly, neither pulling away until shouting breached their privacy of the ski lift chair. They quickly broke a part to see all of their friends passing them on the lift, making hearts at them and going the opposite direction. Blaine whirled around and started laughing.
"Ha! Oh my gosh, we missed getting off!" he exclaimed, almost breaking the moment, but Kurt refused.
"That's fine, it just means I get you to myself longer," he murmured back, too focused on kissing Blaine again to really concentrate on much of anything.
All eight boys crowded around the small wood furnace, each trying to stick their toes as close as possible to the big metal thing without actually touching it and burning themselves. "I can't believe you forgot to start the fire, Thad. What, did you think our body heat would warm this place up?" Wes asked angrily, and Thad glared as he shoved another stick into the flames.
"You know, I'm not the only one who knows how to start a fire, Wesley," he replied, as he shoved a full log into the furnace, "You could have-" he cut himself off. "Oh. Crap…" Seven heads all immediately turned to look at him, a little creepily at that. "Guys, we have a problem."
"What is it?" Nick asked nervously, and Thad gestured to the log half sticking out of the metal box.
"It won't go in any farther," he answered, and was soon pushed out of the way by Trent who started to attempt to shove the log in at all angles, only to fail easily. In response he quickly pulled the log out, knowing they would have to close up the fire in order to stop the house from burning down, but started screaming when he realized the log had already caught, flames licking up the sides. "Oh, God! What do we do!" Thad yelped, as Trent continued to scream, holding the log by its cool end awkwardly. David put his head in his hands.
"You're going to burn my parents' house down," he moaned, and Jeff jumped out, snagging the bucket previously filled with ash, dumping it out on the floor, rushing outside, filling it with snow and coming back in.
"Quick, quick, put in in here!" he yelped, and Trent was all too happy to comply, quickly upturning the slowly burning log into the bucket. A loud his and cackle filled the house, and just like that it was over, Trent and Jeff panting and looking down at the log, ash and soot somehow smeared all over the blonde. That was the first to respond.
"Well, good work team!" he exclaimed, and Wes facepalmed.
"Alright," the head Warbler sighed, "there's no use staying still in this freezing house when it's just as cold outside. Anyone up for a game of manhunt?" he asked and was met with seven yeses, the boys immediately separating themselves into teams: Wes, David, Nick and Jeff as one, and Trent, Thad, Kurt, and Blaine as the other.
"Nickpea, I don't even know where we are, let alone where the bases are anymore," Jeff said unhappily, stomping through the woods with his best friend. Nick frowned, and reached out for the blonde's hand. He didn't know where they were either, and it was absolutely freezing outside in the cold, winter, mountain night. He spotted a fallen log and lead Jeff over to it.
"Maybe we should sit tight and wait for someone to find us," he reasoned, and Jeff nodded, taking a seat on the snowy log, and Nick curled up on the log next to him. He looked down at Jeff's face and frowned at the anxiousness he found there. He sympathized, pretty freaked out to be lost as well, but this wasn't the only time Jeff had seemed a bit worried around him this weekend (or this week. Or this month… or this school year…) and Nick was starting to get worried. "Jeffie, is everything okay? Like… with us, I mean?" he asked, the moon shining just enough for him to make out all the dips and curves of Jeff's face that he knew so well. Their breath puffed up in clouds around them, the woods eerie now that the conversation had gotten serious. Jeff nodded.
"Yeah, everything's fine. Well… right now it is, anyway," he answered, and Nick didn't actually like the sound of that. He leaned forward and put his hand over Jeff's on the log, their breathing slowing and synchronizing without Nick telling it to. He wondered if Jeff made that happen or if it was just instinctual at this point.
"What do you mean 'right now'?" he asked over a seemingly endless pause, that must have only been a split second but felt much longer in the silence of the forest and darkness of the night. Jeff squirmed where he sat, refusing to meet Nick's eye.
"I don't know, I just…" Jeff seemed to be at war with himself, and Nick waited patiently. "I just am waiting…" he answered eventually, and Nick frowned.
"Waiting for what?" he questioned, and Jeff pressed his lips together and squeezed his eyes closed, turning away.
"Just… when are you going to realize that I'm not good enough, Nicky?" he asked, and suddenly Nicholas Duval was exceedingly grateful for getting lost in the woods because this was a line of thinking that he absolutely could not have last any longer, and sometimes quiet forests like these at night right before Christmas when everyone told the truth were the perfect places for conversations like these. He gasped a little as he noticed Jeff trying to hold back tears and brought his free hand up to the blonde's cheek.
"Never… cause you're not…" he answered slowly, and Jeff gagged a little bit, suddenly extremely upset.
"But I am," he whispered, but he didn't need to say anything else about the matter. Like why or in what way. Nick understood. He didn't want to understand, but he did because Jeff was his responsibility and his best friend, and no one understood Jeff like he did. He let his hand fall lazily to Jeff's shoulder, and pressed their foreheads together, closing his eyes despite feeling Jeff's terrified stare trying to burn through his eyelids.
"What your dad says isn't true," he answered, and by the way Jeff slightly buckled beneath him, he knew he had hit the nail on the head.
"Nicky, I-"
"No, shut up, I just… I…" Nick was practically pulling himself apart with desire to… well… "Jeff, I.." He caved, and ducked in quickly to peck Jeff on the lips just as a flashlight scanned over their faces. He pulled and turned away from Jeff, folding his hands into his lap awkwardly. He could see Jeff staring at him, dazed, in his peripheral vision, but he couldn't be brought to face him.
"Yo, guys!" shouted Thad's voice and the flashlight beam stayed on them. "Don't worry, I found them! And they're making out!" he shouted, and the yells of all their other friends excitedly coming to get them followed. Nick bit his lip, trying not to look at the shocked expression on Jeff's face.
"Sorry," he muttered, but Jeff's face broke into a smile as he grabbed Nick's hand.
"No, no. Believe me, it's fine," he said, as six flashlight beams fell on them, and Nick inhaled sharply, completely surprised when Jeff's mouth met his own again for another quick kiss, chaste, short, and sweet like all first kisses were supposed to be, and Nick's cheeks heated up, the night suddenly feeling extremely warm. "Now let's go get rescued."
Nick and Jeff immediately got into Wes's car and fell asleep, exhausted from another long day of skiing and all the excitement of getting lost last night having officially taken its toll. Wes closed the trunk up wearily, definitely not looking forward to driving the eight hours back to Westerville and dropping off the whole army he had in his car at probably five in the morning to keep his promise of getting all the boys back by Christmas Eve. They should have left earlier.
"Ready to go?" he asked the five other boys who were still meandering outside the cars, Thad and Trent gave out a whoop, still energetic, while Blaine winced and looked over to Kurt quickly.
"Kurt. I know… I know the whole ski trip was supposed to be your present, but… before we go…" he trailed off, and dug a small box out of his pocket and handed it over to the other boy, who seemed vaguely annoyed, but also extremely excited. He quickly grabbed the wrapped parcel and untied the bow, slipping of the paper, opening it up and marveling at what he found inside.
"Oh, God, Blaine… this is silver?" he asked, and Blaine nodded as Kurt slipped the tiny dog tag necklace over his head.
"Yeah, read it," he said, and Kurt quickly pulled it up and read the engraved words allowed.
"'Thank you for helping me as much as I tried to help you'… Oh, Blaine!" he yelped, smothering his new boyfriend in a hug, and the soloist laughed, squeezing him back tight.
"Yeah… sorry it's kind of corny and not very romantic. We weren't actually together yet," he explained, and Kurt just kept squeezing him tight.
"Okay, enough with the corny stuff!" Wes declared from the driver's seat of his car, breaking them up, "Let's hit the road so I can get you back before your families bake cookies without you." And with that, Kurt and Blaine climbed into Thad's backseat and settled in for the ride back home, excited to be returning a couple.
So. I've owned Elevate since, like, November when it came out. I'm literally just listening to the music now. #noshame. But for the record, it's really good, and I've listened to "Superstar" at least twelve times in a row now…
Also, the song "Hot Over Summer" by Stephen Jerzak? I like… just understood that. I'm pretty sure my friend Doug was born to sing it sophomore year… cause freshman year was really derpy for me… …