A/N Here's my Valentine to you all! Hope you enjoy it! Part of the 2019 Valentine's Challenge!
Reviews always welcome!
…
The Assignment
Kurt loved the Creative Writing class at Dalton. He especially loved the teacher, Ms. Jacobson, who gave them such interesting writing assignments. He did Not love this assignment, though.
"I want you all to write a fifty page Valentine's Day story. It doesn't necessarily need to be a love story," she'd added when several boys groaned at the topic. "It can be about friends, or family, and yes, it can be about love, if you so choose. It can be about a Valentine's day in your past, perhaps, or about what you hope for for this upcoming Valentine's Day. Who knows, maybe if you write it well enough your girlfriends will think it's sweet and romantic, and they'll let you kiss them this year!"
There were some chuckles at this. Kurt didn't laugh, though. As the bell rang, Ms. Jacobson called out, "You have two weeks to write your story. They'll be due on February twelfth!"
Kurt gathered up his books and his bag, frowning. What could he write about? He didn't really have any good experiences with Valentine's Day. Yeah, he was a hopeless romantic, but to him, Valentine's had just been another day when everyone else rubbed it in his face that he was an outsider. Last year with New Directions, they'd had a Valentine's party. Everyone had gotten cards, except him. Okay, that wasn't entirely true. Brittany had given him a card. It had read, "Deepest Condolences."
Maybe he should write a story about a boy who hates Valentine's Day because he's alone and people tend to forget about him on that day.
Yeah, Kurt, let's just depress everyone. I'm sure that would go over great.
He sighed as he made his way in to the cafeteria for lunch, heart tripping when he spotted Blaine sitting with Nick, Jeff, Trent, and Thad, laughing about something one of them had said.
Maybe he should write a story about a boy who is in love with his best friend, only the best friend is oblivious. Yeah, he could write an entire novel on that subject. But what if Ms. Jacobson made them read the stories out loud, and someone figured out he'd written about his feelings for Blaine? It was possible, she'd done it before.
Sighing again and shaking the thoughts from his head, he got his food and went to join his fellow Warblers.
Blaine looked up and smiled brilliantly at him as he approached. "Hi, Kurt! How has your day been so far?"
Kurt tried to act casual as he shrugged. "Okay so far. Have a new writing assignment for Ms. Jacobson, fifty pages, due in two weeks."
Blaine let out a low whistle. "That's a big assignment. What are you going to write about?"
"I don't know yet. It's supposed to be a Valentine's story."
Nick and the other Warblers snorted at this. "Well, that should be an interesting story!"
Kurt and Blaine turned and looked at the other four boys in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Blaine asked, frowning.
Jeff just grinned. "He means Kurt is such a talented writer, that whatever he writes is bound to be...interesting." The other boys all laughed again, but Kurt just frowned.
"Anyway," he said, turning back to Blaine, "how did you do on your French quiz?"
They talked about conjugation of French verbs and song selections for Regionals for the rest of the lunch period. As they were leaving the cafeteria, Blaine smiled at him again.
"Are we still on for coffee at the Lima Bean after school?"
Kurt smiled in return. "Of course, wouldn't miss it."
"Good, cause there was something I wanted to talk to you about."
"Okay. I'll wait for you in the lobby."
"Great, see you there!"
…
Kurt was bouncing on air when he got back to his dorm later that evening. Blaine wanted to sing to someone for Valentine's Day! He hadn't actually come out and said he wanted to sing to Kurt, but who else could he mean?
He'd said there was a guy that he hadn't known for very long, and that his feelings for them had grown. Blaine had only known Kurt for a few months, and they spent a lot of time together, singing flirty duets. The shorter boy was constantly touching him, holding his hand, leaning on him when they sat together in Warbler's rehearsal, putting his head on Kurt's shoulder when they watched movies together. It had to be him, didn't it?
He suddenly knew what he wanted to write about for his Creative Writing project, and forgetting about his other homework for the moment, he turned on his Broadway Playlist, which began playing Take a Chance on Me, from Mamma Mia, he sat down with his laptop and began typing away.
By the time lights out came, Kurt had finished the outline for his story about two best friends who are secretly in love with each other, each oblivious to the others' feelings, until one of them starts getting gifts from a secret admirer. By Thursday he was two-thirds of the way done with his story. That was the day Blaine Anderson destroyed Valentine's Day for Kurt Hummel.
...
"Why the GAP?"
"The guy I like is a junior manager there," Blaine beamed happily, as if he wasn't aware of the crushing pain ripping through Kurt's heart.
Kurt wasn't sure how he managed to make it back to his dorm room without crying, but once inside, he threw himself down on the bed and sobbed into his pillow. He was such a fool! How could he have believed Blaine had been in love with him? Miserable, he skipped dinner, didn't bother even trying to do any homework, and cried himself to sleep early.
On the desk across the room, his laptop screen glowed gently, Kurt's story forgotten as the swirling ribbons of the screensaver danced across the screen.
…
"Um, Kurt?" The voice was hesitant, unsure, familiar. It took a moment for it to penetrate Kurt's sleeping brain. He slowly blinked his eyes open, frowning at the dark haired boy leaning over him.
"Wes?" he asked, voice still slurred from sleep. "What'r'ya doin my room?"
The other boy frowned. "I was going to ask what you were doing sleeping on the couch in the Warbler's Commons?"
Kurt frowned again, blinking once more as he looked around him. "Oh Gaga, I did it again..." he groaned.
"Kurt?" The Asian council member said, sounding concerned.
Kurt sat up and dropped his face into his hands, not really wanting to explain, but feeling obliged to. "I sometimes sleepwalk. It usually only happens when I am really stressed out, but sometimes it just happens for no reason."
Wes studied him for a moment. "So, this has nothing to do with Blaine announcing he's in love with someone else?"
"What?! No! Of course not! Why would you think that?" Kurt failed miserably at sounding confused by the question.
Wes smirked at him. "Because you've been half in love with him from the moment you came here to spy, and it's been obvious to everyone in the Warblers, except that idiot, Blaine."
Kurt slumped back on the couch. "Has it really been that obvious?"
Wes sat down beside him and patted his knee. "For what it's worth, I don't think Blaine really loves this guy he wants to sing to. I don't think he really knows what he's doing. It's pretty obvious he likes you, too. I know he cares about you. I think he's just confused about his feelings. This thing with Jeremiah, it's just a distraction. He'll figure it out, hopefully sooner rather than later."
Kurt gave him a weak smile. "Thanks, Wes. And please don't tell anyone about the sleep walking. It's embarrassing."
The older boy just smiled and stood up. "Why don't you go back to your room and freshen up, and meet us for breakfast."
…
Later that afternoon, Kurt was once again in misery as the Warblers rehearsed the song Blaine wanted to sing for the guy he was crushing on.
Seriously? When I Get You Alone? Is Blaine out of his mind? Kurt would have rolled his eyes if he weren't already fighting back tears again. This song didn't sound like Blaine wanted to announce he was falling in love with the guy, more like he just wanted a physical relationship. He might as well have been singing I Want Your Sex.
Thankfully, Wes called an end after only two run throughs, stating that they could do another run through before they left for the mall the next day. Kurt quickly gathered his stuff and tried to bolt for the door without looking like that was exactly what he was doing. He didn't know how much longer he could hold himself together.
He was halfway to the stairs when David and Wes caught up with him. "How are you holding up?" The darker boy asked.
Kurt's shoulders slumped. "I don't know whether I'm more upset about him being oblivious to how I feel about him or the fact that he basically wants to sing about having...sex," his face turned red as he stuttered over the word, "with that other guy. I mean, if that is all he's interested in, then of course he'd never notice me. Who'd ever find me sexy?"
David's jaw dropped at those words, but Wes just grabbed the younger boy by the shoulders. "Come on, Kurt! Lot's of guys find you sexy! If I was gay, I'd definitely want your body!"
This time both David and Kurt gaped at the Asian boy. His face turned pink, but he plowed on. "You know what I mean!" There was a moment of silence, and then all three boys burst out laughing.
"Thanks, Wes," Kurt said, still giggling. "I really appreciate that! And I really needed that laugh. I'll be fine. I'll see you both at dinner in half an hour."
"Okay, but if you don't show, I'll come up and drag you down," Wes replied.
"Kinky!" David said with a snort. Wes just huffed and walk off, as Kurt and David laughed again.
In the end, Wes' threat wasn't needed, as Kurt arrived in the cafeteria right on time. He sat with the other Warblers, although not beside Blaine as he usually did. Somehow he'd ended up between David and Nick, with Blaine sitting across from him. The dapper Warbler had frowned when he noticed that Kurt wasn't beside him, but was distracted by Trent lamenting the new diet his mother had put him on.
Kurt tried not to be upset when Blaine brought up the GAP attack tomorrow, pretending to be caught up in the conversation he was having with Nick and Jeff, who was sitting on the other side of his boyfriend.
Dinner was winding down when someone cleared their throat behind Kurt. "Mr. Hummel?"
He turned to face Miss Simpson, the receptionist. She smiled at him and held out a single white rose in a vase, with a small card dangling from a white ribbon. "This was just delivered to the office for you."
"For me?" Kurt said, in surprise. He hesitantly reached out to take it when she nodded her head. "Thank you."
Talk around the table had ceased as everyone looked at him. "Who's it from?" Thad asked.
Kurt read the card and blushed. "To the most Beautiful person in the world, from your Secret Admirer."
A collective awww went up around the table, and they all began to speculate who could have sent it. Everyone except Blaine, who eyed the rose with a frown of confusion.
As the group broke up to head to their respective dorms or the library to do homework, Kurt pulled Wes aside. "You don't happen to know anything about this, do you?" He indicated the rose.
The Asian boy looked at him in confusion. "Me? No! I'm just as surprised as you!"
Kurt studied his face. He seemed to be just as genuinely confused as Kurt. "I just thought...I mean, after earlier, I thought maybe you had sent it just to cheer me up, or maybe even try and make Blaine jealous."
The older boy shook his head. "I hadn't even thought of that. Besides, I'm saving my money to buy something special for Jennifer next week. We met on Valentine's Day, two years ago, so I was thinking of getting her some jewelry or something for our anniversary."
"Aww, that's sweet!" Kurt patted the other boy on the arm. "I'm sure she'll love it."
Wes smiled. "Thanks."
Kurt made his way back to his dorm, lost in thought about who could have sent the rose, and why. When he entered, he glanced at the laptop on his desk. He thought about working on his story, but decided against it in favor of catching up on the rest of the homework he'd neglected the last few days.
It was Friday night, he could have waited to do his other homework over the weekend, but just didn't have the energy to work on the story. Besides, he'd pretty much lost his muse.
He made it through his French homework, finished off his Trig worksheet, and managed half of his essay for History before sleep began to pull at him. He put his books away, changed into his pajamas, and did an abbreviated moisturizing routine before crawling under the covers. Before falling asleep, he looked at the vase on the bedside table, studying the rose in the moonlight. Who could have sent it?
