This feels so instalove-y to me, but I still like it, so up it goes.


Contrary to what most of his friends believed, Blaine actually wasn't that bad at learning other languages. He wasn't fluent in anything but English, but he could keep up with new words and sentence structures well enough - it was just finding the time to do the work that got him screwed up.

(He also couldn't quite understand the need to gender every noun, but that was more of a philosophical issue than a linguistic one, in Blaine's opinion. As long as he forced himself to memorize which determiner went with which noun, he was fine.)

None of these facts prevented him from signing up for French tutoring, though. Anything to allow him to spend more time with one Kurt Hummel.

"So, um...when are you free to meet?" Kurt asked after class one day, fiddling gently with his glasses.

"After school tomorrow?" Blaine suggested, following Kurt down the hall even though his next period was in the other direction. "I don't have Glee practice then."

"I can do that," Kurt said. "Should we go to the library, or…?"

"Wherever you'd like," Blaine said, smiling at Kurt. "I want you to be comfortable - you know, so you can feel at ease while you're teaching."

Blaine tried not to wince at his own big mouth. Just tell him how you feel, Anderson, why don't you?

Thankfully, Kurt didn't seem to notice, saying, "The library it is, then," with a shy smile of his own.

"Can't wait," Blaine replied. He immediately wanted to shove a fist in his mouth - was he trying to scare Kurt off? He'd seen how withdrawn Kurt got around the obnoxious football players and their loud, animated conversations, and he didn't want Kurt to see him as another asshole to deal with.

They'd reached the chem lab by then, prompting Kurt to say a quiet goodbye to Blaine just as the bell rang. Kurt was still smiling as they left each other, an expression that made Blaine's mad dash to AP Lit feel worth the tardy mark.


Blaine thought he could feel his heart expanding in his chest as he walked over to Kurt's corner in the library the next day, a carryout tray of coffees in his hand. Kurt was leaning against the wall reading a novel and chewing on his bottom lip, looking so cute that Blaine was waiting for the singing woodland creatures to appear next to him any minute.

"Hey," he said quietly, not wanting to spook Kurt. "Sorry I'm late, there was a huge line at the Lima Bean."

"You went to get us coffee? How are you even back this soon? The Lima Bean is like ten minutes away," Kurt said, gaping.

"I ditched last period. It's just my study hall," Blaine said. "Besides, I know the school can't afford to pay you to do this, so I wanted to get you something in return."

Kurt took a sip of the drink Blaine handed him, blushing a pretty pink. "I'm just glad you didn't ditch the session. Some of our classmates think it's funny to book my time then not show up, leaving me stuck here til the late bus comes." He didn't make eye contact with Blaine after saying that, making Blaine's heart clench slightly.

"Assholes," Blaine said, taking a sip of his own beverage. "I would never. And if we finish early or want to go later, I can give you a ride home, if you're okay with that."

"I wouldn't want to be an inconvenience-"

"I wouldn't have offered if you were going to be," Blaine said. "And I wouldn't think of you that way anyways."

"Thank you," Kurt said, tentatively meeting Blaine's gaze. "For the offer and the drink. It's delicious."

"Just wanted to butter you up before you realize how bad I am at gendering nouns," Blaine teased, wanting to lighten the mood a little.

"Is anyone good at gendering nouns?" Kurt asked. "I can do it, but I don't get it - like, why is milk a masculine noun?"

"I have been wondering that ever since the semester started!" Blaine said, voice getting louder in his excitement at Kurt agreeing with him. "English has its own weird problems, but at least we can use the same determiner for all of our nouns."

"I still love French, though. It just sounds so nice," Kurt said. "Even the words for body parts."

"Is that what we're doing today?"

"Mhm. We're going to start them in class next week, so today we'll just work on memorizing the names. It'll help us both, and we'll be a step ahead of everyone else."

"Sounds good to me," Blaine said, a vague idea taking shape in his brain. "Wanna make a game of it?"

"How?" Kurt asked, looking a little confused.

"One of us says the French word, and the other touches whichever part on the speaker's body they think it is. Or we could just point or something. I just think it'll be more interesting than memorizing a list," Blaine said, hoping he hadn't crossed a line. He and Kurt had only had a couple of conversations, after all, even if Blaine had cherished every minute.

Kurt adjusted his glasses before replying. "Okay."

"Okay?" Blaine repeated, knowing he was smiling joyfully but wanting Kurt to be completely sure.

"Okay. Just - sorry if I have cold hands?" Kurt said awkwardly.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. You want to guess first or speak first?" Blaine asked, taking one of the vocab sheets Kurt dug out of his backpack.

"Guess," Kurt said.

"Okay, then - le coude," Blaine said after skimming the list. He didn't want to start with anything too intimate.

"Oh - hold on, I'm coming to sit next to you," Kurt said, leaving his stuff and walking to Blaine's side of the table. "I couldn't reach your elbow without climbing on top of the table."

Cool fingers squeezed Blaine's elbow as Kurt explained his move, making goosebumps prickle along Blaine's arm.

"Your turn," Blaine said, a bit choked.

"Right, um - le pied," Kurt said, grabbing his word sheet from where he'd left it.

"Uh," Blaine said, stumped. "The ankle?"

He ran his foot up Kurt's leg as he guessed, noticing Kurt shiver in response.

"N-no, that's la cheville," Kurt said shakily. "I said the foot."

"I was close," Blaine said with a grin. "La main."

"The hand," Kurt replied easily, loosely entwining his with Blaine's.

Blaine locked their fingers tighter for a moment before responding, "No fair. You probably looked at these words before coming to our meeting."

"I'll never tell," Kurt teased, smirking at Blaine and making his heart stutter. "L'épaule."

"Oh, I know that one!" Blaine said. "Shoulder."

He reached out and draped his arm across Kurt's shoulder, staying purposely close as he said "I looked it up because you were wearing a jacket with epaulets one day, and Madame Ambrose said it was fitting."

"You did?" Kurt asked, a little dazed.

"Crap, that was kind of creepy," Blaine said, shaking his head as the realization hit. "Sorry, I promise I'm not stalking you or something."

"No! I mean, yeah, that's a little weird to remember, but it's kind of...flattering?" Kurt said. "I usually go unnoticed unless people want to pick on me."

"I notice you," Blaine said dumbly. They looked at each other in silence for a moment before he continued, "Right, it's my turn. Um - la poitrine."

"Oh, I don't remember this one," Kurt said, scrunching his nose. "The knee?"

Blaine moved Kurt's hand up slowly, saying, "The chest."

"Not even close," Kurt said, leaving his hand where it was. "La joue."

"Uh-"

"I'll give you a hint," Kurt said, dropping his word sheet to use that hand to bring Blaine's hand from his shoulder to his cheek.

"Cheek. Les cheveux."

"Hair." Kurt's hand twined into the slightly looser section at the back of Blaine's neck. "Les lèvres."

Blaine stared into Kurt's eyes. "Kurt…."

"Les lèvres," Kurt repeated, not wavering under Blaine's gaze.

"Lips," Blaine said, and crashed his into Kurt's.

The hand in Blaine's hair moved down to wrap around his shoulders with Kurt's other arm, while Blaine kept one hand on Kurt's cheek and moved the other to Kurt's waist. Blaine peculiarly felt like he was both drowning and finally breathing properly for the first time in his life.

"Best tutoring session ever," Kurt said once they broke apart, gasping slightly.

"Would you like to repeat it? Maybe over dinner?" Blaine asked, voice cracking.

"Oui, oui!"

It didn't take long for "practicing French" to acquire a whole new meaning for Kurt and Blaine.