This came about because of a conversation with a friend of mine who, like Blaine, is out and proud, but can pass. He had a really interesting point of view and I wanted to explore Blaine's side of things, since we hear about it from Kurt. I'm not sure it's as easy being the alpha gay as Kurt thinks it is.
It was true; Blaine really liked to work out. He loved the thrill and adrenaline of boxing and he'd managed to build a nice camaraderie with the guys of New Directions from hanging around the weight room. He loved Kurt to pieces and he enjoyed hanging around with his girls, but since leaving Dalton, he couldn't deny that he missed hanging out with "the guys." He imagined it was a little like how Kurt felt during his transfer.
It wasn't like Blaine didn't have his own group of girls that he liked to hang around with. He didn't like to box people in because of their sexuality, but there was a reason for the "hag" stereotype. As much as he loved Wes and David and as much as he was growing to love the new friendships he'd found with Mike and the others, there were some things he just felt more comfortable discussing with girls. As much as he knew his guy friends didn't necessarily mind hearing about it, they just couldn't get behind a conversation about how good Kurt's ass looked in a certain pair of pants. Further, no matter how much they cared about Blaine, there was no convincing any of them to accompany him to a sale a Brooks Brothers.
Despite what one might think, back at Dalton Blaine he had no problem finding girls to hang around with. He became pretty close with Wes and David's girlfriends and he always managed to make new friends at the mixers the administration would organize with the Crawford girls. Not to mention, Jeff's twin sister Alison was the only reason that Blaine didn't have a panic attack when he attempted to choose an outfit for his first official date with Kurt.
He wasn't at Dalton anymore, though and as much as he loved the New Directions girls (even though they had an odd start to their relationship he probably counted Rachel as one of his best friends), they were still primarily Kurt's friends and he didn't want to overstep.
But back to the point, Blaine loved to work out. Despite this, however, he had almost comically disparate feelings about gym class. It was a bit of a cliché really, the gay kid hating gym class, but it was less about feeling like a weakling and more that he always felt like an outsider in a sea of strangers in his junior physical education class. Tina, Artie, and Rory were all in a different period. He didn't typically mind being by himself, but there was still something slightly disconcerting about being in a class of one hundred people, none of whom he was certain even knew his name. There was a loud, but not unfriendly boy, who was his partner when they ran drills during the volley ball unit, but he had only referred to him as 'Smalls.' The teacher, one Sue Sylvester alternated among calling him Other Gay, young Burt Reynolds, and Sir Helmut.
That unit was over though, and Blaine was back to square one. At Dalton he was used to being told unilaterally what to do and everyone would be in the same sport at once. Things were a little different here at McKinley. Since the gym classes were so big, they would split into four different activities per unit, draw lots (just popsicle sticks with numbers on them), and when their number came up they got to pick the activity they wanted as long as their were still spaces free. For once, Blaine had to give the school some credit. It was a fairly good scheme. It meant that Blaine would probably never be forced to play dodge ball again and choices like yoga and step aerobics meant that disinterested girls wouldn't be forced to stand around while the football players tried to beat each other with floor hockey sticks. Yes, Blaine thought it was a good scheme, well at least he thought that before he drew the absolute last number during the second unit of the semester.
"Tough break, Smalls," his pseudo friend said from his spot on the bleachers behind him. "Have fun in Zumba class."
Blaine groaned, but resigned himself to three weeks of Latin dance aerobics with a group of girls who would hopefully be okay with a relatively sassy, gay intruder.
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"I don't see what the big deal is," Kurt said when Blaine complained to him about his new activity. He was spending a quiet Friday afternoon at the Hudmels's, Kurt had his legs draped over his lap and they were watching re-runs of Friends. Finn was sitting in the chair next to the couch, absentmindedly flipping through a copy of Sports Illustrated. "I took Zumba last year and it was really fun. Plus you love to dance."
Blaine was about to gently explain why it wasn't an ideal situation when Finn decided to cut in, "You don't get it, dude, it's emasculating."
Blaine shot Finn a look that said 'please, please stop talking,' and thankfully he got the message. "It's not really that, although maybe it's part of it, but that's not really a particular concern of mine," Blaine said, tickling Kurt's side to get his attention again. Kurt loved his brother, but he had a tendency to tune out Finn's idiotic rambling—mostly any sentence that started with 'you don't get it, dude.'
"Hey, stop that!" Kurt squealed, pulling away from Blaine's fingers, but the smile on his face betrayed him. "Okay, okay I'm listening. You have my full attention."
"So, you know how you joke sometimes about me passing?" Blaine and Kurt were both painfully aware that saying they 'joked' about it was putting is gently and ignoring some huge underlying problems, but for arguments sake they both just went with it, Kurt nodding in agreement. "Okay so, I know it can be hard for you sometimes and it can put us in some awkward situations, but it can be sort of hard for me too, especially at times like this."
Kurt gave him a skeptical look, but gestured for him to go on, "I just mean, yeah it's a little easier for me to get in with a group of guys because maybe I'm a little less obvious, but as soon as they get to know me even a little, I become the gay kid again. I mean, don't get me wrong I love my guy friends and they're all totally accepting and stuff, but there are still a lot of times when I feel like an outsider," Blaine explained. "And of course, I get along well with girls too, but it takes them a little longer to let me in since I don't come off as obviously gay. Please don't take this the wrong way, but most of the girls I'm friends with, I only met because they tried to come onto me. It takes a bit of time for the embarrassment to ware off and for them to be comfortable talking to me like they might talk to you. It makes me feel a bit caught in the middle," Blaine sighed and moved so that he was lying on his side behind Kurt so they could cuddle closer. "You're right, I do love to dance. I'm just a little nervous I guess."
Kurt turned to face Blaine, "I guess I never thought of it that way," Kurt said, rubbing a hand up and down Blaine's arm.
"Um…are you guys about to be like, intimate or whatever?" Finn asked, tactlessly interrupting their conversation, "Because you know I'm like totally cool with it, but I don't really want to, like…be here when it happens."
Kurt groaned a bit and dropped his head onto Blaine's shoulder, "No, Finn, we are not about to be 'intimate' as you put it," Kurt gritted out. "But if our conversation is interrupting your important magazine reading, we can take this to my room instead."
With that, Kurt pulled Blaine by the hand into his bedroom. Once they were downstairs, it because apparent that they were definitely going to make good on Finn's assumption. Kurt had every intention of finishing the conversation with Blaine, but it could wait until after they made out a little, or a lot.
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When Blaine got into the locker room for gym that Monday, he was determined to make the best out of the situation. He and Kurt talked about it the other night once their mouths were free and Kurt had convinced him that it would be a good opportunity to make a few more friends in his year, staunchly avoiding the reason that this might be a good idea. They had an unspoken 'no talking about graduation unless it's completely necessary' rule.
He walked into the room and stood by himself for a few minutes, looking around and scoping out potential friends. The teacher was popping a"Dancing With the Stars" workout video into the DVD player at the front of the room and Blaine rolled his eyes. Of course the teachers at Mckinley couldn't even be bothered to teach the class themselves.
"Pathetic isn't it?" a familiar voice came from behind him and Blaine whirled around to see Sugar standing a few feet behind him with her hand on her hip. 'How could he have forgotten Sugar?' Blaine thought to himself, "I mean, I knew it wasn't going to be as good as the private aerobic instructor that my Daddy hires for me, I really don't need to be supervised while I do a workout video, not Aspergers."
Blaine wasn't sure what to say. Of course he knew Sugar, they were in the Glee club together, but this was the first time he'd ever actually spoken to her, "yeah well at least some of the dancers on there are men," Blaine said crossing his arms and looking around a bit uncomfortably. "I stick out like a sore thumb."
"No way, Blaine. I'm glad you're here," Sugar said, giving him in intentioned look. "We're both adorable and compact and I've decided we should be friends. I would like to follow in the foot steps of my real housewives idols and acquire a gay husband," Blaine might ordinarily be put off or offended by a comment like that, but the paradoxically vacant earnestness that accompanied everything Sugar said made it sort of amusing. It didn't hurt that Sugar knew exactly how to get on his good side. "Plus you have a hot senior boyfriend."
Blaine blushed, "he is pretty hot isn't he?"
"Mhmm," Sugar said taking her place to start the workout routine. "And this weekend we're going go to the mall and I'm going to take you to Brooks Brothers and you're going to take me to Betsy Johnson and you're going to tell me all about him."
Blaine was once again taken aback by her straightforwardness, but she was the first person in his own year that wasn't one of Kurt's friends to take any sort of an interest in him and besides, Blaine never gave up an opportunity to gush about Kurt, "Yeah...um...sure, that sounds fun." Blaine thought to himself that gym class might not be so bad this unit.
I'm not wholly satisfied with this ending and will likely edit/explore further. I just wanted to get this seed of a premise out there.
