Title: look into my eyes, meet me there, don't look down
Author: Rach
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Kurt/Blaine
Spoilers: Episode #2.22 (if anything, no specific spoilers)
Word Count: 2762
Summary: Kurt and Blaine take a trip to check out New York before college, and Blaine isn't being himself.
Author's Note: This is my first attempt at Klaine, I hope people like it! I tend to have a problem with ending fics, where I like what I'm writing and then don't know how to stop so just ramble for pages; I think I managed to stop before I did that this time! Title comes from Brave Face by Delta Goodrem.
Midway through their senior year, Kurt and Blaine managed to convince their parents that they should take a trip to New York, just the two of them. They were both planning to go to college there, so it made sense to let them go for a weekend, to get a feel for the city, where they might like to live, all the exciting things that made going to school out of state feel so grown-up.
Blaine had been particularly quiet as Burt drove them to the airport, but Kurt had chalked it up to the embarrassment of the speech his dad was giving them both. For some reason Blaine was on the receiving end of all of Burt's glares, and it was all Kurt could do to stop himself from screeching that he was just as likely to ravish Blaine as the other way around, and could this stop now, please?
Despite the fact Burt was allowing them to stay in the same room for the weekend – because he knew it would be a waste of money to force them to book two rooms when there was no way they would both get used – Kurt knew that his Dad would have no hesitation in turning the car right back around if he were to have such an outburst, lost flight money be damned. So he kept his lips pressed tight together, nodded curtly at every one of his Dad's rules, and shot the occasional apologetic smile towards where Blaine was settled in the back seat.
They reached the airport and said goodbye to Burt outside – this was their trip, completely organised and paid for by Kurt and Blaine. Burt had just helped them out with a ride because he refused to let them waste their money on airport parking, and Kurt was incredibly grateful. Kurt had already checked them in online and picked their seats, so getting through security went smoothly aside from Blaine having a weird mini freak-out when they were asked to go in separate security lines to speed things up. ('I just thought I might not be able to find you once we got through', Blaine had muttered, kissing Kurt and gripping his hand once they were reunited. Kurt decided not to bring up how weird that was, given that they could see the other side of security before they were parted.)
"-can't believe you managed to fit everything in your carry on," Kurt was saying, and Blaine blinked. He wasn't sure how long Kurt had been talking. He played with the coffee in front of him, sliding the paper cup back and forth across the table between his hands. "I would have brought more things and used your allowance if I'd known!"
Blaine laughed. "We saved money by not paying for a bag for me. I didn't need much. And we're only going for three days."
Kurt nodded. "I know. But still." He smiled at Blaine, and drained the last of his coffee, frowning at Blaine's still almost-full cup. "Are you okay? You've hardly touched your coffee."
"'m fine," Blaine shrugged. "Just not sure too much caffeine is a good idea before..." he trailed off, nodding his head towards the planes they could see sitting on the tarmac outside. "Don't want to be jittery all the way to New York."
"Blaine," Kurt whispered, removing the coffee from between Blaine's hands and tangling his fingers with his boyfriend's. "You drink six coffees a day, minimum. I don't think one is all of a sudden going to give you the shakes." He paused, looking at Blaine, who was avoiding his gaze. "Seriously - is something wrong?"
Blaine shook his head and smiled – Kurt could tell it was a forced smile, he knew Blaine well enough by now – as he gently kissed Kurt's knuckles and then pulled his hands away. "I'm fine," he repeated, standing up. "I'm going to go to the bathroom. We'll be boarding soon."
Kurt watched Blaine as he headed off in the direction of the restroom, his back straight and his posture seeming almost too perfect. It wasn't that Blaine was having second thoughts about going - he knew Blaine wanted to see New York as much as Kurt wanted to show it to him – and God, he hated himself a little every time he acted like a New York expert, even though he'd only been once. Maybe that was the problem.
It wasn't until an hour later, when they were buckled in and the plane was taxiing down the runway, when Blaine's face had turned almost as pale as Kurt's natural skin tone and his fingers were digging in to Kurt's thigh, that he leant his face toward Kurt's neck and settled it there, whispering "I'm not a great flyer, Kurt."
Kurt suddenly realised that this was why Blaine had insisted Kurt take the window seat, why he had been pleased that Kurt had chosen the seats at the back (nothing to do with them being out of everybody's line of sight, which had been Kurt's main motive – Blaine was thinking about being close to the bathroom), and why he'd been so quiet all morning.
It was something Kurt hadn't considered when they were arranging the trip – he knew Blaine had flown internationally when he was younger, so the possibility of a fear of flying hadn't even occurred to him.
He peeled Blaine's fingers away from his thigh and squeezed Blaine's hand tightly with his own instead as the wheels went up and the plane began to climb. "Do you have something to take? To calm you down?" He'd only flown once and he'd been fine, so he wasn't really sure how to deal with Blaine, other than to try and be soothing.
Blaine shook his head, which was still resting between Kurt's neck and shoulder. "Don't want to. We're in the air for less than two hours," he mumbled, his eyes closed. He looked relaxed, but Kurt could feel his heart beating at least twice as fast as usual. "My parents gave me something when we flew to Paris one summer. Knocked me out for the entire flight, which was great, but I also don't remember much about the first two days we were there." He paused. "It's not... it's not like a real phobia. I mean, I know people who are so scared to fly they can't even get on a plane without hyperventilating. I feel stupid for even comparing myself to them. I just... don't like it."
"Don't say that," Kurt started. "You're not stupid." He sighed and let Blaine nuzzle into his neck, their hands tangled tightly in Kurt's lap. Kurt stroked his thumb back and forth across Blaine's knuckles as he shifted a little to look out of the window.
He liked this part – watching the buildings get smaller and the cars turn into ants. "Oh, wow," he breathed in delight, pulling a little further away from Blaine to get a better look, but making sure he kept their hands joined. "We're above a rainbow! I didn't know that was possible." He glanced at Blaine, who had moved to sit upright with his head pressed back into the seat, eyes tight shut. "Look, Blaine. It's beautiful."
He shook his head, eyes still closed. "I believe you."
Kurt sighed again (he knew that it had been a long shot anyway) and watched as they continued to climb, until they passed through the clouds and the rainbow was out of sight. He could see the shadow of their plane falling onto the clouds below, surrounded in a rainbow circle. He leant forward towards the seat pocket, rummaging for his camera, but Blaine tugged him back.
Looking over his shoulder at Blaine, Kurt let go of the pocket and settled back into the seat. He looped his arm through Blaine's, resting his palm on Blaine's thigh instead of gripping his hand. He was pulling down the blind just as the seatbelt sign went off, and Blaine smiled gratefully, opening his eyes once he realised that it was suddenly darker.
"Thanks," he sighed, kissing Kurt's neck as he settled his head back down.
"Blaine..." He was rubbing circles on Blaine leg now. "Baby, are you sure you're okay? I'm sure one of the stewardesses would maybe have some advice..."
"I'm fine," Blaine insisted, and seemed a little more sincere about it now that they were safely off the ground and it didn't really feel like they were moving. "You're here. I'm good." He paused and looked up at Kurt. "You called me baby. I thought you hated those kinds of pet names."
Kurt smiled and ran his fingers through Blaine's hair. "Yeah, well. I'm worried about you. It felt appropriate. This one time."
Blaine grinned. "Does this mean I get to call you pookie now?"
Kurt laughed and pushed Blaine away a little, raising the arm rest between their seats so that he could wrap his arms around Blaine the way he wanted to. "Never."
"Angel?"
"You must be feeling better, then."
"Is that a yes?"
"No, that's not a yes."
Blaine was quiet for a moment, considering. "Boo?"
"I hope that was just a pitiful attempt at scaring me for some reason, rather than a genuine suggestion for something you could call me."
Kurt knew that Blaine was trying to distract himself, and it was working, so Kurt wasn't going to complain about it. Blaine looked less pale and he wasn't digging his fingers into Kurt quite so hard. He leant in, resting his forehead against Blaine's. "I love you."
Blaine smiled, kissing Kurt. "I love you too."
"So this whole flying problem..." Kurt started, and Blaine pulled back a little, frowning, and opened his mouth ready to protest that he was still fine. "Does that mean we're not going to be joining the mile high club today?"
"Kurt!" Blaine flushed immediately, peering over the back of the seat in front to see if anybody had heard. "Seriously?"
Kurt batted Blaine on the arm. "No, not seriously, dumbass. There's like fifty people on this plane. We'd never get away with it!"
"I think I liked you calling me baby better than dumbass."
Kurt laughed again and opened his mouth to reply just as the plane shook a little and Blaine's hand flew to Kurt's leg again, his nails making marks in Kurt's jeans. "Hey," Kurt whispered, turning Blaine's head with one hand and gently tracing circles on Blaine's back with the other. "Look at me."
Blaine opened his eyes and stared at Kurt, clearly afraid as they hit a patch of turbulence. Kurt rested their foreheads together again, kissing Blaine softly and smiling. "We're fine. I'm here. This is just a little breeze; they haven't even turned the seatbelt sign back on." He kissed his boyfriend again. "Yeah?"
Blaine swallowed and nodded, leaning back into Kurt's kisses. "Yeah."
"So we can stay like this, and you can forget about everything else." Kurt grinned. "We can just spend the rest of the flight making out."
"That's..." Blaine swallowed again, breathing out slowly as he tried to forget where they were. The turbulence seemed to have stopped, which was helping. "That's like another hour."
Kurt smiled against Blaine's lips. "Is that a problem for you?"
Blaine caught his bottom lip between his teeth and shook his head with a smile. "No. I was just checking." He shifted as close to Kurt as his seatbelt would allow – because even with the sign off he wasn't unbuckling – and kissed him again. He was suddenly glad Kurt had picked the two seats at the back for all the right reasons, instead of just being pleased they were near the bathroom.
One of the cabin crew passed by just then, and bent down towards them with a smile. "Can I get you two anything to drink?"
Blaine jumped in his seat at the sound of her voice as he hadn't seen her coming, and Kurt fought back a laugh as Blaine shook his head without even turning to face her. "No, we're good, thank you," Kurt smiled, and she nodded and moved on to the next row.
"She'll be watching us closely now," Kurt teased. "Making sure we don't both disappear into the bathroom at the same time..."
Blaine laughed, and twisted a little in his seat to lean back against Kurt's chest, pulling his boyfriend's arms tight around him. "I love you, pookie," he murmured, and Kurt slapped him playfully across the shoulder. "No, you're right," Blaine laughed. "Doesn't do it for me at all."
"Good," Kurt grinned, dipping his face to kiss Blaine's neck. "I'd hate to have to murder you while we're away. I don't know how I'd explain it if I went back to Lima without you."
"You wouldn't be able to," Blaine replied lazily, his eyes closed as he settled comfortably against Kurt, allowing his boyfriend to trail kisses from his collarbone up to his earlobe and finding himself temporarily able to forget where they were. "You'd have to go on the run." He paused. "That could be a sexy look for you."
Kurt snorted. "I don't think so. Criminals don't tend to be the snappiest of dressers."
"Come on, Kurt. That's not true. We've both seen White Collar."
"You're insane."
Blaine smiled and tipped his head back, opening his eyes briefly to look at Kurt. "It's why you love me."
Kurt considered this. "Yeah, it kinda is."
Blaine was almost asleep when the seatbelt sign went back on. Kurt moved slightly from where he'd spent the last half hour stroking his thumb over Blaine's hip bone and whispering into his ear, and placed a kiss on his temple. "Blaine, baby?"
Blaine opened his eyes and titled his head towards Kurt. "You said it again," he mumbled sleepily, and Kurt laughed.
"I did." He tried to manoeuvre his arms from around Blaine and Blaine looked around, confused, still only half awake. "It's okay," Kurt soothed. "We're getting ready to land, so we need to put the arm rest back down between us."
Blaine nodded and sat up straight, while Kurt pulled the divider back down and took both of Blaine's hands in his own. He noticed that Blaine wasn't anywhere near as pale as he had been at take off – he wasn't going to claim magical powers of healing phobias or anything, but he felt a warm feeling inside that he'd obviously been able to help at least a little.
Kurt pulled the blind back up at the stewardess's request and Blaine licked his lips, sucking in a breath and leaning past Kurt to glance outside, where they had just emerged through the clouds. "Okay, no," he breathed, quickly shutting his eyes again and dropping back into his seat.
"Too much?"
"Little bit," Blaine mumbled as Kurt raised their hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to Blaine's palm.
"Just concentrate on the fun we're going to have when we get there," he muttered into Blaine's ear. "Alone in a hotel room. Just the two of us." He watched as Blaine went pink to the tip of his ears and smiled, knowing they were seconds away from landing, if he could just keep Blaine distracted. As the wheels touched down, he continued. "No parents. No gigantic, noisy step-brothers..."
Blaine laughed as the plane stopped at the gate, feeling a little silly for having made such a fuss. "I can't wait." He paused, unbuckling his seatbelt and standing to reach their things down from the overhead lockers. "You know, if you'd managed to fit all of your things into a carry-on instead of checking a bag, we'd be at the hotel even sooner..."
Kurt narrowed his eyes, though Blaine could see laughter there so just grinned back at him. "I spend the entire flight making sure you're okay, and you're still on the bag thing? Maybe we should have booked separate rooms after all..."