A/N: This is an AU so this starts near the end of Kurt's (and Blaine's) sophomore year but in the present day so I don't have to worry about references that I have included not being around three years ago. I've also twisted canon slightly, so Glee club has been around since Kurt's freshman year and Sam, Rory and Sugar are there. Burt and Carole are not together, and Burt has not had a heart attack. Also, I prefer to write Finn from season 1, when he didn't understand big words and didn't make me want to punch myself in the face.
"Hey! I recently got quite a few more subscribers-" A jump cut reveals the boy waving excitedly, " hello, new people!"
The screen cuts back again, "So, I decided that as I haven't done an 'about me' since I started doing this," The boy gestures to the camera, "it's very overdue."
The shot changes abruptly to a close up, "My name is Blaine Anderson and I am seventeen."
Another shot change, Blaine is standing at the top of a flight of stairs, shouting down to the camera which appears to be placed at the bottom, judging by the vie, "I like singing and playing guitar!"
A very short clip, less than a second shows Blaine strumming confidently, and singing along with an upbeat, current song with smiling eyes and a grin.
Just as suddenly as the clip of Blaine singing comes on, it is swapped for Blaine jumping on a trampoline, his arms thrown wide, "I like having fun!"
The screen cuts again to Blaine in his room, sitting cross legged with a notepad open on his lap. "I like writing," he says, nose scrunched slightly to keep the glasses he is now wearing on. A pen rests behind his left ear, slowly dropping comically before falling to the floor with a clatter.
"I'm distracted very easily, so I am one of the world's best procrastinators" says a Blaine who is staring into a screen, pressing buttons on a controller and wincing slightly as his character falls to the ground, defeated.
Then he is sitting on his bed again, where he was at the start of the video, "I don't know what else to say really, I'm actually kind of boring. I have no idea why so many people watch my videos!"
He ducks his head and smiles for an impossibly short amount of time before another jump cut, "I normally post videos once a fortnight, and they're… a jumble of my life, I suppose. I love doing covers of songs and occasionally I do write my own- you can listen to them for free on my website, there's a link in the description."
"The rest of my videos are my opinions on things, anecdotes, projects that I'm working on, that kind of thing."
He beams at the camera, "So, yeah, that's me and my videos in a nutshell. Sorry this video is quite short; I'll be making a longer, proper one later this week so look out for that."
Another jump cut, "And thank you so much for taking the time to comment, like and subscribe; it really means a lot to me."
"Until next time, guys," Blaine blows a kiss to the camera and winks before the screen shows a dog carrying a piece of card in his mouth with Blaine's twitter username written in multi coloured pens. The song playing in the background is an extended version of the song that Blaine was singing earlier.
Kurt smiles at how well the song suits Blaine's voice.
"When I look into your eyes, it's like watching the night sky, or a beautiful sunrise, there's so much they hold. And just like them old stars I see that you've come so far to be right where you are. How old is your soul? Well I won't give up on us, even if the skies get rough. I'm giving you all my love. I'm still looking up. And when you're needing your space to do navigating, I'll be patiently waiting to see what you find."
The song stops there and the video is over, the screen blank.
Kurt hums the song absentmindedly as he closes Google Chrome and shuts his laptop down before picking it up and moving it off his desk.
"Kurt!"
"Coming!" Kurt shouts to his dad as he climbs up the stairs from the basement.
Burt is already sitting down with his plate full with pizza and fries when Kurt enters the room.
"Dad, I swear, you need to start eating properly- look at the grease on that! You're going to give yourself a heart attack or something."
"Yeah, well, enjoy your rabbit food," Burt gestures to the salad sitting opposite him as Kurt takes his seat.
Kurt spears a tomato and piece of lettuce and manages not to laugh at the grimace Burt is shooting him across the table.
"Oh, forgot to tell you earlier, kid, but Mandy came in the shop today and asked if you'd be interested in helping in another hospital fundraise."
"Yeah, that'd be great. Do you have her number?"
Burt nods and pulls a worn slip of paper out of the pocket on his jeans, "Call her tomorrow, she said that she'd just got off her night shift, so she's probably asleep right now."
"Sure," Kurt leaves the paper where Burt placed it on the table between their two plates.
Burt looks over to Kurt, who is studying his food, head bowed slightly over his plate, "How was Glee?"
At the mention, Kurt lifts his head, and shrugs, "We got a new assignment which is... going to be interesting, to say the least."
At Burt's questioning look, he continues, "We have to perform a song that someone else in the club would normally sing. All our names were put in a hat and we have to perform like the person that we got."
"Who'd you get?"
"Puckerman," Kurt says, a smile tugging at his lips.
"Isn't he the one with the Mohawk?" Burt asks.
"Yeah, that's him. I was actually planning to ask you about it. Do you think 'We Will Rock You' is a bad choice?"
"If anyone could pull it off, you could. When will you be performing?"
"I'm not entirely sure, probably Thursday," Kurt estimates.
"Well, you've got a couple of days to put something together."
Kurt hums in agreement, already planning his outfit. He considers asking his dad if guy-liner would look alright, but his dad thinks flannel is alright, so he's getting no input in the appearance side of things.
"Oh, dad? I was wondering, would it be okay to give the shop's address for mail?"
"Why can't we have it sent here?" Burt asks around his last piece of pizza.
"It's probably best not to give out the actual address because of. I- I read some stories online about… haters finding out addresses and I know it's ridiculous, but…"
Burt swallows and nods, "Yeah, you give out the shop's address, kiddo, it's fine."
Kurt nods a 'thank you' and stands up, while simultaneously reaching for Burt's plate.
"You go upstairs, Kurt, I'll get the washing up," Burt says, "Why don't you film your new video now, the… ballings you ordered-"
"Bails." Kurt corrects him absentmindedly.
Burt nods, "They came in the mail today, I put them by the telly so I wouldn't forget."
"Thanks, dad."
He pulls his camera out of his closet and sits it on a pile of books and checks the framing in his mirror. He sighs when he can only see his neck in the reflection of the screen of the camera and adds some more books to the pile. He decides that he really does need to invest in a proper camcorder and tripod at some point because the amount of time he spends trying to get his makeshift one to work is almost agonising.
Finally, the camera is in the correct position so that only Kurt's head, neck and shoulders are in shot.
Kurt recites through the introduction of his video a couple of times to make sure he knows what he's saying before he presses the shutter once and makes sure that the camera is recording by looking into the reflection of the mirror behind him. He adjusts it slightly before sitting back in his chair comfortably and looking slightly above the lens of the camera.
"Hi," Kurt smiles at the camera, not nearly as self-conscious as he was when he first started making videos, "I actually had quite a few comments on my last video asking me about giving gifts so I've decided that I'm going to do a little miniseries about giving someone one- a friend, family member, boyfriend, girlfriend- gifts that are a little bit different and not quite so boring and predictable."
Kurt runs through the same paragraph again, adding slightly different gestures and facial expressions. When he's happy that he has a good take of that part he reads the next part of the script that he wrote and looks back to the camera, ready for the next section.
"So, what I'll be making today is a simple pendant from things that you may have lying around in your house, but are very inexpensive to buy if you don't. Things that you will need consist of: some coloured card, a cord or old necklace chain, a bail- you can get them at any craft store or online at a really low cost, a circular piece of glass- this can be from some old glasses, or a flashlight- and a picture, drawing or a design that you want the pendant to be of. You'll also need some craft glue and some scissors."
Kurt repeats it once more, not worrying about his facial expressions as he knows that he will only be using the sound from this, and replacing the video with some clips of the items as he lists them.
Kurt shuts the camera off, and checks what he has recorded so far for sound quality, which is the only problem he has had with the camera he uses, aside from the actual positioning of it.
When he is satisfied that it sounds good he records a couple of seconds of each item that he previously listed for him to edit in later. He then sets up the camera again so that it shows only his hands on the desk.
"The first thing you're going to need to do is…" Kurt reaches for some paper and narrates what he is going. Twisting his wrist in order to get around the lens, he draws around the glass to get a circle. He sketches in a star in the centre and rings around the edge. Kurt finishes drawing his design and quickly colours it with Sharpies. Carefully, he coats the glass with a thin layer of glue before pressing the paper onto it; the decorated side face down into the glue. After waiting a few minutes for it to dry, Kurt uses his scissors to cut the paper to the shape of the glass and files it around the edges with a small nail file.
Kurt then glues a bail to the back of the pendant and threads a necklace chain through it before holding the finished product up to the camera, "And here is my finished pendant- yes, it's the Captain America shield, I'm a marvel dork! You can put some coloured card on the back, if you want to, and varnish it if you want it to be water proof. You can buy clear varnish at most craft stores, but clear nail polish works just as well if you have any."
"As always with my tutorial videos, there is a blog post about this on Tumblr- there's a link below- there are instructions with pictures on there for all the steps and lots of design ideas which you could try out. Also, please send in photos of your own, I love seeing them all!"
He pauses for a second before giving a two fingered salute to the camera, "Thank you for watching, please comment with any ideas you would like me to work with. I'll see you guys soon!"
Kurt presses the shutter on the camera to stop recording and clears away everything from his desk and opens his laptop lid.
Refusing to get side-tracked by Youtube or Tumblr, he goes to his settings to turn the WiFi off. He then clicks on the shortcut to his editing software and plugs the camera into the USB port. He imports the video and begins cutting the forty minute video down.
It's only thirty minutes later that Kurt has gotten rid of all the unwanted takes, a much shorter time than usual, but then Kurt has only just got used to the new software which he paid for, instead of a free download from the internet. He starts to work on his jump cuts and then edits the stills of the components into the section where he lists them.
About an hour and a quarter after Kurt begins editing he is finally finished. Just to make sure, he watches the video through. Satisfied, he clicks to export it and saves it in his Youtube folder on his computer.
He is just clicking onto the WiFi icon to set it back on, when there is a soft knock at the door.
"Come in," Kurt calls, clicking on Google Chrome and beginning to type in the address bar.
"Hey, kiddo, brought you some warm milk," Burt says, reaching out to place it on the desk next to the laptop. Kurt manages to push a coaster underneath the glass just before it touches the expensive wood.
"Is this what you made today?" Burt lifts the pendant up and flips it over to see the front.
"You know, you could make a lot of money from doing this. This- It's really good, Kurt."
Kurt ducks his head slightly and grins, "I was thinking that maybe I could start making things to sell to raise money to go to Vidcon next year." His voice is hopeful and subtly questioning.
"That's the big YouTube gathering, right?"
"Yeah, I saw loads of things about people that went this year and it sounds really cool."
"We'll discuss this closer to the time, okay, kid?"
Kurt 'uh huh's and nods.
"Is that code for 'get out of my room'?"
Kurt laughs, "Night, dad."
It's half an hour later when the drained glass of milk is put back onto the coaster on the desk, and Kurt is still typing furiously, determined to get the post finished and saved, ready for publishing the next day.
A quick glance at the clock tells him that it's too late to work on his Glee assignment, like he should have done; he should have gone to bed an hour ago.
Kurt yawns, lack of sleep finally catching up with him. He stretches his arms above his head, his back arching like a cat's.
He adds in a gif that he made of different pendants that he made in the same way and puts it under the words 'Design Ideas'. Finally, he saves the post as a draft and turns off the laptop after a quick scroll of his dashboard, which is dead at this time of the night.
Quickly, he goes through his night time skin routine, not putting as much effort into it as he usually does, but he finds himself unable to find the energy to care. While he is patting his face dry with a soft, fluffy white towel, Kurt decides to give the pendant he just made to Mercedes. She went to the cinema to see the Avengers Assemble with Sam when it first came out and she really enjoyed it, according to what she told Kurt. He wasn't sure if she enjoyed the movie or the fact that she was officially dating Sam until she gushed to Kurt about how 'insanely cute they all are. I don't care that me and Sam are now official, Tom Hiddleston get in my bed!'
Kurt squeezes a small amount of moisturiser onto the tips of his fingers and rubs it into his skin in small circles before washing his hands and sitting back at his desk. After rummaging through the drawers that are integrated into his desk- and realising that he needs to reorganise them and sort out how messy and cluttered they are- he pulls out a small woven bag and puts the pendant in. He then pulls a small piece of ribbon and ties it around the top before curling it quickly using a pen. Happy that his gift looks good, he puts it on his desk so he'll remember to give it to Mercedes tomorrow.
Kurt walks over to the set of drawers that sit beside his bed; he reaches out and tugs the drawer open.
He misjudges it like he does every night and the drawer jerks out roughly, his clothes spewing out onto the floor. Sighing he bends down and gathers them up. He manages to gather enough patience to spend the time to neatly fold and arrange them all back into it, he leaves aside one pair of grey sweatpants.
Kurt strips off his clothes throwing them hurriedly into wicker basket before turning back to step into the pants. He pulls them up round his waist but they sag a little, resting on his hips instead, and the top of his underwear is now visible. He catches sight of himself in the dresser mirror and chooses to ignore it.
He throws back the covers on his bed and rolls into the bed tugging the covers over his half naked body, throwing an arm out to turn off the lamp beside him.
Once the light is out, Kurt shifts under the weight of his covers and pushes them to the side so the left side of his chest and torso is exposed. His eyes close almost instantaneously and he is asleep within a matter of seconds, his lack of sleep over the last few nights catching up with him.
It seems that no matter how desperate Kurt is to finally get an uninterrupted sleep his mind rebels against the idea. It is 3am when Kurt wakes up with a light sheen of sweat clinging to his skin uncomfortably, the nightmare already fading too quickly to remember any of the details. He thinks this one included his dad, but before he can even think to try to remember how, the dream has gone completely, faded back into his mind and locked in until the next time he manages to fall asleep where it will inevitably return.
He shudders and rubs a hand over his eyes, breathing shakily as he attempts to calm himself. Kurt's arm reaches out to his side to press the button on top of his clock to illuminate the clock face. He groans; he got even less sleep than last night, which he didn't think was possible. He estimates the number of hours of sleep he has gotten over the past week; it takes an embarrassingly long period of time to do the basic math.
Groaning, he falls back into his pillow and shifts, trying to get into a comfortable position. He closes his eyes, and manages to doze off for a few minutes before he is jolted awake again by a flash of a fist coming towards his face. He takes a few breaths and attempts to calm himself down again, before pulling out his iPod and headphones from the top drawer beside his bed.
The screen is too bright for Kurt's unaccustomed eyes, and he squints while he goes to the settings to turn it down. He then goes to Youtube, and the playlist that Blaine has of covers and presses play. After turning the volume down slightly, he puts the ear buds into his ears.
He doesn't plan on getting back to sleep now, but his eyes sting from tiredness so he closes them, a small smile on his face as he listens to Blaine explain that this is a song from one of his favourite youtubers- link in the description- and is called 'Good Morning Sunshine'.
A/N: I am on S&C now, with the same username if you want to look me up.
And sorry for not writing anything in so long!