Currently, my Mum is blasting the Warblers album, my Dad is quietly impressed by the fact that Linda McCartney endorsed them, and my brother is on the phone, speaking in a voice that just makes you know that he's silently horrified at what I've done to my family. And me? I still squee-ing over the fact that I now have a piece of genuine merchandise with Darren Criss's name on it. So life is pretty good.
That's why I decided to post this. It was actually written for an entirely different purpose, but it didn't really work out for that. Hopefully, it's not too bad as a cute little Klaine fic.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. I don't even own the Warblers CD. It was a birthday present for my Mum...
This is for TheLuciferPerson
Because you were my 150th reviewer for 'Sesame Street'
And still
(three weeks later)
I'm completely blown away by that number!
"We built a fort out of sheets.
I finally found you,
My missing puzzle piece.
I'm complete."
~ Teenage Dream, Katy Perry
...
Kurt entered Blaine's room and gasped, a wide smile forming on his face.
Two white bed sheets hung in the centre of the small space, cocooning a bare light bulb that was suspended from the ceiling. The sheets were pulled out to form a large tent, their corners tied to the desk legs, bed legs and what appeared to be hatstand, with shoelaces. Kurt caught sight of his boyfriend's shiny black school shoes hidden, lace-less, under the bed.
"This is incredible," Kurt whispered.
Blaine grinned in response, pulling back a flap of sheet, and gesturing for Kurt to enter the softly-lit, pillow-filled interior.
It was a strange phenomenon for this lifeless, expressionless boarding-house room to be so completely transformed. The off-white walls, empty of pictures because modifications weren't permitted, were hidden from view by the gently fluttering sheets. Even the standard brown carpet that usually made Kurt wince had somehow been made warmer by the masses of pillows covering it. Impossibly, Blaine had managed to transform this room – this temporary, customary dormitory – into something beautiful, something unique, something personal.
"How-?" Kurt couldn't finish his sentence, dumbfounded all over again as the sheer scale of his boyfriend's efforts hit him.
The blank sheets had been carefully decorated with what looked like hundreds of tiny safety pins, each adorned with a bead, a badge, an origami bird – tiny little ornaments that Blaine must have exhaustingly attached, one-by-one. Some of the pins held little sheets of paper suspended on strings, and as Kurt reached out to touch one, he noticed it was a movie ticket stub: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two. He looked at Blaine in amazement.
"You kept the ticket?" he asked, half-smiling.
A blush erupted in Blaine's cheeks and he looked down at his lap, lifting a hand to cover his face and shrugging uncomfortably.
"I know it's cheesy," he admitted. "But I found it in my jeans pocket the other day, and I thought I should add it to the collection."
Kurt raised his eyebrows, repeating, in a questioning tone, "'The collection'?"
If possible, the flush in Blaine's cheeks grew.
"Oh, you know. Receipts from dinner dates, the photo booth pictures from that fair we went to, coffee cups that you doodle on without even noticing..."
Kurt was grinning properly now, and he made an act of carefully scanning the interior of the bed sheet tent, exclaiming, "I don't see any coffee cups!"
Blaine laughed, finally letting his hand drop from his face as he sat back a bit, admiring his handiwork.
It seemed a lot of effort to go to, he'd admit, setting up this entire bed sheet fortress only to have to pull it down tomorrow. The dorm master had promised an inspection this weekend, and it was only through a long conversation (which may or may not have involved some serious grovelling), that Blaine had managed to negotiate his room check time to ensure it wouldn't happen until Sunday. Then there'd been the matter of actually making this masterpiece. Sketches had been drawn, designs submitted to his sub-committee (consisting of his friends from the chess club and choir), complex mathematical formulas applied to ensure that every angle was right, every knot would hold and every inch of space would be filled with pillows. The pin-ornaments had been Blaine's own idea, and despite many uncomfortable nights' sleep, with his pyjamas catching on an accidentally undone safety-pin, it was all made worth it for Kurt's expression as he continued to take in the sight.
"This is the badge you wore on your blazer, that time the Warblers performed at assembly," Kurt said suddenly, his fingertips brushing over an intricate golden canary. "And this – this is the amulet from your necklace."
"I know."
Kurt glanced over at his boyfriend, a little overwhelmed by all the effort that had been put into this simple, perfect little moment.
And Blaine stared back, a little bit overwhelmed too.
Did Kurt realise how it felt, how spectacular it was, to have someone to do things like this for?
All of his life, Blaine had been moving – running away from the school where he was bullied for being who he was, leaving the father who couldn't meet him in the eye, abandoning the house that he'd grown up in, yet knowing the whole time that this relief was only temporary. This new school, new room, new friends – they weren't going to last forever. Already he was about to start his final year, and then what? What would happen when this life was over?
The answer to that question sat before Blaine, perched atop a fluffy pillow, adoring blue eyes gazing right at him. Kurt.
Kurt was the one solid thing, the one permanent thing that Blaine could count on in the future. Even as everything else changed like the weather, Blaine somehow knew that Kurt wouldn't. That belief in Kurt was stronger even than Blaine's belief in himself. After all, the self was unpredictable; it did things that you couldn't understand, felt things that you didn't want to feel, said things that you wished to take back the moment they were out. The self was inconstant – an illusion to trick you into thinking it was something that you could control, something that you could hold onto and be sure of.
But Kurt was real. As Blaine moved his hand to touch Kurt's, resting on the floor, he felt the warm, solid skin against his. Kurt's fingers reached out to tangle with his own, and he held them tight, grasping on to the security, the safety that they conveyed.
"I'm scared," Blaine admitted in a whisper, his eyes still fixed on Kurt's. "That's why I did all this. I'm scared of when I'm going to lose it all again, just like before. Nothing sticks with me, Kurt. Nothing holds on. It's all temporary."
"I'm not," Kurt reminded him. "This tent can fall down, this school can fall down, the whole world can collapse if that's what you're afraid of. But I'll still be here."
And, as the boys exchanged smiles, they could almost believe it.
The fragile walls of their tent uselessly shielded them from the outside world. Yet, behind those fluttering white sheets, a stronger bond held strong. Maybe Blaine hadn't found a permanent home yet, or a permanent family. But he'd found Kurt. And, despite being surrounded by a rapidly changing world, he somehow knew that right here, right now - hand-firmly-in-hand with the boy he loved - was exactly where he belonged.
Haha! The ending is funny if you know what this was originally written for. In fact, I will genuinely write an any fandom oneshot for anyone who can guess what that was!
(But T, BZ and melody aren't allowed to guess, cos it should be obvious to them.)