A/N: So, as said, this is the sequel to Serenading Blaine, which was posted earlier this week. If you haven't read it (and aren't planning to) - both fics are AUs, but set during SLS. In the other fic, Kurt and the Warblers tried to get it through to Blaine the WIGYA was not an appropriate serenading song. Now it's Blaine's turn :) (just to clear up possible confusion: yes, there is a POV shift at some point; no, it's not said explicitly; but it does take place after a break, and it should be obvious enough)
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or anything else you might recognise.
Hopefully you'll like it, and please leave a review at the bottom!
For once, Blaine was happy that Kurt didn't board at Dalton. It made planning this whole serenade much, much easier. There had been a moment of panic when Kurt seemed to be well aware of what they were planning – that time during Warblers practice when he'd suggested organising a lonely hearts dinner at Lima's only restaurant, Breadstix. Wes had been quick (Blaine worried for days that he'd been too quick) to shoot down that suggestion, only to hit David's hand with the gavel accidentally, causing the remainder of the practice to be cancelled as David was accompanied to the nurse's office because, well, he could barely feel his fingers anymore.
Apparently, this rejection didn't sit well with Kurt, as Blaine found out when the two of them were the only ones left in the meeting room. Kurt seemed to think that he hadn't made any progress since his first Warbler meeting, when his ideas had been shot down as well. Blaine made up some lame excuse about the Warblers probably not being ready yet for a public, informal performance after all.
Actually, the complete opposite was true. The Warblers had been practising a song for days, starting right after Blaine – having stalked Kurt's Facebook page thoroughly – had tentatively suggested a Beatles song. Kurt had never said anything bad about them, and you could never really go wrong with the Beatles. Sure, in the end, they'd chosen a song not quite by the Beatles, but Paul McCartney was still close enough.
"Do you have any plans for Monday?" Kurt asked, most likely attempting to sound casual, but he wasn't quite succeeding.
"Not really," Blaine lied, hoping that he wasn't too obvious. "I mean, I'm not serenading Jeremiah anymore, so I'll probably spend Valentine's Day like every other miserable single person."
"You could come to Breadstix with us," Kurt suggested. "I know," he said when Blaine shot him a look. "The Warblers aren't going to perform there anymore. But it's the only half-decent restaurant in Lima, so all my friends from New Directions will probably be there. As a matter of fact, Mercedes, Rachel and I will be hosting our very own single's dinner there. Perhaps we can get Santana to join us, if she doesn't manage to steal someone's boyfriend before then."
Hearing Kurt's plans, Blaine felt strangely jealous. He quickly tried to repress those feelings – after all, these girls were Kurt's friends and, as already pointed out, they were girls. Kurt wasn't interested in them like that. "I'd love to join," he replied, and he meant it. Maybe he could after the serenade? Who knew. "But I can't. Sorry."
Kurt raised an eyebrow at him. "Why not? You just said you didn't have any plans…"
"I may have plans for the evening," Blaine said carefully. "Not a date, or anything. Just – plans. Maybe. If I don't, I'll come to Breadstix, alright?"
Kurt seemed to be satisfied with that answer.
o-o-o-o-o
That weekend, Blaine (who had temporarily taken charge, as this was his own personal little project; he didn't care, for once, that Wes had a gavel. After what had happened to David (fortunately, his fingers hadn't been broken, but they'd had quite a scare), Wes was now far more careful with the thing) had the Warblers practise their harmonies every waking moment. He figured they might be sick and tired of him and the song after this, but he didn't think about that one moment. After this, he'd either be too happy with Kurt or too depressed to care.
When Monday came around, Blaine noticed that Kurt was being exceptionally careful around him, which worried him slightly. Why would his friend feel the need to suddenly censor himself around Blaine?
"Are you okay?" he therefore asked Kurt as they walked towards the school cafeteria for lunch.
"I'm fine," Kurt replied. "Just – " he glanced around and gestured towards students surrounding them. "Just a little depressing that all these people are talking about their plans for Valentine's Day, and all I'm going to do is have dinner and feel sorry for myself with a couple of friends. Female friends, at that. I mean, I love them and all, but it's not how gay guys would like to celebrate this day, don't you think?"
Blaine wholeheartedly agreed. He wondered briefly if he should've sent Kurt something, like a card or something – anonymously, of course – but Kurt would probably think someone was mocking him. Or, which was maybe a more positive attitude, that whoever sent it to him was only doing that in an attempt to cheer him up.
So he just stuck to Kurt's side all day long, just so neither of them could get too depressed by the love-fest surrounding them. Blaine could only hope Kurt appreciated the gesture.
o-o-o-o-o
That evening, Breadstix was completely full. Kurt scoffed internally – if he had had a date right now, he definitely wouldn't have come here. Sure, the restaurant itself was kind of nice, but everyone in Lima went here. He'd want something more unique for a date. Apparently, that was just him.
They hadn't managed to convince Santana to sit with them, as she was a little too interested in the fact that Quinn was down with mono and Sam was there all by himself, for some reason. While Kurt had fun, catching up with Mercedes and Rachel (and the occasional other New Directions member who came to greet him), he couldn't help but wish that Blaine had shown up. He hadn't expected his friend to want to go out with him, especially on Valentine's Day, but at least with the girls there, it was more like a friendly thing anyway, right? He also couldn't for the life of him come up with a reason as to what else Blaine could be doing tonight. Oh well – maybe he could pry a little tomorrow at school.
"Kurt? Are you alright?" Mercedes asked suddenly, and Kurt snapped out of his daze.
"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" he asked, trying to sound like he really was alright.
"You just completely zoned out," Rachel replied. "When Finn – "
"Hey, look," Mercedes interrupted her, exchanging a small smirk with Kurt. "There's still room, there. I wonder why no one's sitting there – "
"There's a bunch of girls," Rachel countered. "They're probably waiting for their dates or something."
"While I understand that some people like double dating on occasion, this is simply too much," Kurt commented. There were around ten girls there, and more than ten unoccupied seats.
"It's wouldn't be my ideal date either," Rachel agreed, frowning slightly.
All of a sudden, someone appeared to be tapping a microphone nearby. Everyone in the restaurant went silent as they looked around to see where it came from.
"Oh!" Rachel exclaimed when she'd found the source of the noise. "Kurt, look!"
Kurt turned towards where she was pointing and he could feel his eyebrows touch his hairline. "This must be some sort of joke," he muttered as he regarded the group of Warblers moving into an impeccable formation, in uniform as always. All of them, except for Blaine – he was standing apart from the group, behind the microphone.
Why hadn't the Warblers taken up his suggestion about performing here, only to stand here anyway tonight? Why hadn't anyone – mostly Blaine – bothered to tell him about this? Better – why had Blaine told him the Warblers weren't ready for this sort of thing when they obviously were? And why wasn't he being included? To Kurt, this was all the more proof that he really wasn't fitting in as well as he'd hoped.
He entirely missed what Blaine said as an introduction to whatever song they were going to sing, but judging from the looks on the girls' faces, he should've heard what had been said. So Kurt made sure to hear exactly what the Warblers were singing.
Silly love songs?
Kurt wasn't aware that the Warblers were willing to do older songs; they had shot down his idea for a Duran Duran song pretty quickly, after all.
Naturally, Blaine was singing lead again, which, of course, Kurt didn't mind. He sang the song beautifully, after all, like he did most songs. After Blaine had danced around the restaurant quickly, the chorus started –
Kurt blinked. Why would Blaine be looking at him while repeating the 'I love you' multiple times? Sure, it was part of the song, but he could just look around a bit, right? In the end, Kurt decided that Blaine must, for some reason, feel more comfortable looking at someone he knew while singing those lines.
Mercedes and Rachel kept shooting him triumphant glances every now and then, though.
He also tried not to think too much of it when Blaine sang the second half of the bridge at him again, standing only a couple of feet away. This attempt proved useless when Blaine reached out and took one of Kurt's hands before singing 'I love you' again, and Kurt could feel his face heat up instantly.
Was he being serenaded? As in, a real, romantic, I-really-like-you-please-go-out-with-me-and-be-my-boyfriend kind of serenade? Was Blaine just trying to get back at him for stealing his song last week? He quickly dismissed this last thought – Blaine wasn't that mean. In fact, Kurt wasn't sure if Blaine could be mean at all.
Either way, when Blaine pointed right at him during the next 'I love you', all the objections Kurt might've had against the preposterous idea that Blaine would serenade him (after making it clear the week before that he didn't intend to serenade Kurt) went out the window. Kurt ducked his head quickly before glancing up again, just in time for the song to reach its end.
This was just like Blaine, though – it may not be the Gap, but all their friends were present, plus many more Breadstix customers. It was still a very public place. Secretly, Kurt was glad that Finn, too, was out with mono, and therefore, not here. He wouldn't have hesitated to interrogate Blaine or something before Kurt even had the chance to get to him if he'd been present.
Everyone applauded the Warblers loudly, and Kurt couldn't help but feel proud of his club. This feeling last only half a second, though, as soon, thoughts about Blaine singing this song to him occupied his mind again. Kurt couldn't quite wrap his head around it yet.
"Mind if I sit?" Kurt swiftly looked sideways, only to find Blaine standing there, looking bashful. Mercedes and Rachel were grinning widely and, Kurt noticed as he turned back to Blaine, the other members of both Glee clubs were watching the exchange eagerly.
"Not at all," he replied in the end, scooting to the right a little to make some room for Blaine. "Go ahead."
"I told you I'd show," Blaine muttered so that only Kurt could hear. In a slightly louder voice, he asked, "What did you think of our little show?"
Simultaneously, Rachel and Mercedes burst out giggling. "Don't mind us," Rachel told them.
"Just pretend we're not here," Mercedes added, watching the scene unfold in front of her.
Kurt was about to point out that the girls themselves were making that very difficult if they kept giggling, but then he noticed Blaine watching him expectantly.
"It was great," he replied carefully, still not daring to get his hopes up too much. "You sang the song amazingly. And I think you were wrong about the Warblers not being ready for informal performances."
Blaine blinked a couple of times. "Uh – yeah," he said in the end. "I know." He seemed lost for words. A loud sigh from across the table attracted both boys' attention.
"He obviously wants to know how you felt about being serenaded by him tonight," Rachel told Kurt in a patronising tone. "He's asking if that was alright with you and if you feel the same way about him."
Judging from the stunned look Blaine sent her, Kurt understood that he hadn't told her to say this beforehand. But now, three pairs of eyes were on him, awaiting his answer. Kurt decided that it was probably for the best to just concentrate on Blaine and, as they had suggested themselves, pretend that the girls weren't sitting only about a foot away from them.
"Of course that was alright," he replied. He smiled a little. "As a matter of fact, that was more than alright – because, yes, I feel the same way; at least, if you're feeling the way I think you're feeling. Actually, I thought you were going to serenade me from the moment you asked me about it until you said you – "
He suddenly broke off his sentence, frowning slightly at the boy sitting next to him – who, fortunately, for once in his life, seemed to get the hint. "I don't know what I was thinking," Blaine said hastily. "I must've been completely blind not to realise that it's you I'm in love with." He swallowed. "Jeremiah was just – I don't know. I must've projected the feelings I had – have – for you on him because… you're my best friend and I didn't want to screw things up by telling you I wanted more, only to have you not feel the same. Or maybe I just thought I would never stand a chance with you."
"So what changed your mind?" Kurt asked quietly. "Or what made you see the light, whichever it is?"
Blaine smiled coyly. "Just… you," he responded. "You being you, and you singing that awful song to me last week. It made me think, and it made me realise a lot of things. About you."
Kurt knew that they would have to talk about this whole situation some time soon, but for now, he was happy to let it go. "At least you chose a much better song this time around," he muttered, and Blaine grinned widely.
"So you liked it?" he asked happily. "I think I'll start paying more attention to the lyrics next time I decide to serenade someone. You, I mean. Of course."
"I should hope so," Kurt replied quietly, before leaning forward and swiftly pecking Blaine's cheek as well as he could from this angle. Both boys flushed immediately at the contact, and Rachel and Mercedes started giggling and cooing all over again, earning their table some odd (and also knowing) glances from the rest of the restaurant.
Blaine looked about to say something, but in the end, he just leant forward and pecked Kurt's cheek as well. As Blaine sat just a bit closer than they usually did and took Kurt's hand in his, Kurt allowed himself to smile. Yes, they'd have to talk about this later – like what did this mean; were they officially together now? – but for now, he was content, just sitting in a restaurant with two of his closest friends and his might-be boyfriend.
He couldn't have asked for a better way to spend Valentine's Day.
A/N: So, what do you think? Let me know, please review!
(PS: the big table they're talking about at some point... it doesn't really matter much, but I figured the rest of the Warblers would like to spend Valentine's Day with their significant others too, so yeah, those girls are the girlfriends or dates of those boys)
