"What did you just say?"
Blaine knows he's said the wrong thing even before the words come out of his mouth. Kurt snatches his hand away from where it's been entwined with Blaine's over their table at Breadstix, unusually packed for a Sunday evening. In hindsight, Blaine supposes it's a convenience over anything else, because nobody notices the hurt in Kurt's eyes as he recoils or the icy glare that appears seconds later.
"I said no, Kurt. I can't."
"I heard you loud and clear, Blaine. Don't you want to be with me anymore? Is that what this is?" It's moments like this that Blaine wishes he was more open about his past. Also his present, his brain supplies bitterly. Being in a relationship with Kurt for the past year, they've worked themselves into a familiar, comfortable routine. They'll go for coffee at the Lima Bean three times in the week, usually after their respective Glee practices. Blaine finds himself at the Hummel-Hudson's house most Saturdays, watching the game with Burt and Finn or spending time with Kurt (studying or otherwise.)
No questions asked - just how Blaine likes it. Kurt's never been to Blaine's house but it's never been an issue, nor when Blaine has to disappear from the Lima Bean when the clock strikes five.
"You're like my modern day Cinderella," Kurt had joked one rainy Wednesday, as Blaine had kissed him over the table and gathered his things hurriedly after realising the time. "You can keep your glass slipper though."
Except now Kurt is sat across from him, looking pissed and wanting answers. Blaine takes a deep breath. What better time to tell your boyfriend all your deepest secrets than when he's mad at you, in the middle of a busy restaurant of all places?
Probably any other time, he thinks.
"Kurt, it's not like that at all and you know it." He reaches over the table, a feeble attempt at grabbing his hand failing as Kurt crosses his arms. His hand falls and he taps the table nervously. "You know how you've never been to my house and you know practically nothing about my family?"
Kurt leans forward, hands finding their way slowly back to Blaine's. He nods.
"Well. My Dad and my older brother are both in the army; although I think you knew that. They're away for the majority of the year, I think they're somewhere in Asia at the moment but it's been so long since I spoke to them, I couldn't even tell you where.
"So that leaves me, Mom and my little sister Caitlin at home in the big house our Dad bought us with all the money he earns."
Kurt's thumb is tracing light circles on Blaine's palm. "You have a sister?" he asks. "What's she like?"
"She's wonderful. She's 7 years old and she's the typical little girl – you know, obsessed with Disney princess and tea parties. She's so clever, too. She's come first in every spelling bee she's ever competed in." Blaine smiles at the thought of his little sister, standing centre stage among her peers, dressed in a Snow White costume correctly spelling 'trapezium' at last month's competition.
Kurt smiles. "I think she and I would really get along."
"Oh, you would." Blaine's bright expression falters for a second. "I'm all she has though. Mom isn't what you'd call a nice person. She's well affiliated with a bottle of vodka and she's got all these attitude problems on top of that. Somewhere along the way, she put alcohol first and never looked back." He huffs out a humourless laugh. "More like she disowned my brother after her refused to follow the path of our Grandpa, her father, and become a doctor. He had the brains. It just wasn't in his blood."
Kurt's face is a picture of pain. Blaine can see him trying to imagine having such a dysfunctional family, and feels his sympathy through the increased pressure of comforting strokes with his thumbs. Blaine's smile is sad.
"I'm kind of all Caitlin has. I clean, I cook, and I play Fairy Tale with her when I don't have homework. It's why I leave you at 5pm every damn day, to get to her playgroup for 5.30 to pick her up. I can't just leave. It'd be too much. New York will just have to wait."
Blaine looks up from the napkin he's been subconsciously picking at to look at his boyfriend, eyes spiked with tears and he hates that he put them there. So in true Anderson style, Blaine takes the problem and breezes past it, keeping an air of grace and calm about the whole thing. Kurt's never sure how he does it.
"So, are you going to be a good boyfriend and split a cheesecake with me, or…?"
It's 2 years and one near miss with a vodka bottle to the head (Blaine's, specifically) later that leads to hushed voices and haphazardly packed suitcases in the darkness of the Anderson house. Blaine's mom was sleeping fitfully in her room and while Blaine shushed his little sister in his arms he realised he couldn't do it anymore. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell, pointing to the screen to show Caitlin where Kurt's latest text lay, sent almost an hour beforehand.
The offer's there if you want it. Have courage. K x
"What do you think, Caty?" Blaine whispered into her hair. "Wanna go and pay Kurt a visit?"
Now 9 years old, Caitlin has come to love Kurt almost as much as Blaine does. After that date in Breadstix, Blaine had brought Caitlin (and her tea set) over to the Hummel-Hudson's one afternoon and they'd instantly bonded.
"She's special, you know. Just like her brother." The afternoon Carole had whispered that to Blaine, the two of them watching Caitlin and Kurt play Princesses, he knew exactly where his heart belonged, and it sure wasn't in Westerville.
Sat on her brother's lap in the dark room, her bursting smile had given Blaine his answer. With shaking hands he texted Kurt back, kissed Caitlin's temple and raced her to pack the fastest before creeping to Blaine's car, strapping in and driving away from their old life, and into the new.
We're coming! I love you! B xox
In this moment, there are three things that Blaine has never been surer of in his life. The first is that he is fifteen years old – a sophomore beyond his years, thank you very much. The second is that it's the 9th October, 2010 (and subsequently he is sick of hearing about wishing on Airplanes in the night sky, because really, B.O.B?)
The third is a bit more complicated than disliking that damn song.
He thinks he's in love with one Kurt Hummel.
No, he doesn't think, he knows.
Perhaps that's the most complicated thing, seeing as Kurt Hummel doesn't know he exists. Well. He's fairly sure someone like Kurt Hummel wouldn't give him the time of day. He certainly wouldn't take the time to notice the intricate hearts Blaine is pencilling into the margin of his notebook as he sits in the corner of the Lima Bean, back pressed to the window as he perfects the loop of what must be the twentieth 'K&B' on the page.
Except that's where Blaine's wrong because Kurt Hummel has totally just noticed him.
Or, much to Blaine's dismay, Kurt Hummel has totally just noticed his notebook.
"Excuse me?" Used tray poised delicately on hip and head cocked in confusion, Blaine is pretty sure he's never seen anything so beautiful. He turns in his chair and it takes a second to register that Kurt - Kurt Elizabeth Hummel, Kurt whose Celine Dion solo won the McKinley High Cheerios their sixth consecutive national championship before Blaine even knew who the Cheerios were – is standing right by him. Oh God, Blaine thinks. He smells fantastic.
Also, who knew that the look of love looked as though someone had just pulled you backwards through a hedge? Kind of like surprise mixed with horror and a pinch of humiliation, his thoughts add with a slight grin.
"What's so funny? I just couldn't help but notice that my name is all over your notebook. Flawless penmanship, but I do believe we've never met. Kurt Hummel?"
There it is. The handshake.
Blaine feels his cheeks flush as he takes the hand dumbly and goes pliant as Kurt gives it a firm squeeze.
In a moment of inspiration, Blaine decides that all is not lost and although he has fumbled his way through this terrible first meeting (that he was hoping to tell to his grandkids 70 years from now) he can still be spared the complete humiliation of being caught fantasising about the head cheerleader from the year above him.
He replies with a smile, "The name's Wes. B stands for…Blaine, Blaine Anderson. He's this kid from Dalton, I think he's got a crush on you and he'd seen you on the sports network. I was actually…just thinking of ways I could introduce you guys. This is my…" and it takes Blaine everything he's got not to wince at his own words by this point, "Kurt and Blaine notebook. I was just…designing the front cover."
"It's very subtle, I must say," Kurt says with a smile, prying the notebook from Blaine's hands and tracing a finger over the 'Kurt' that fills the centre of the page. "So what's he like? Is he cute?"
Blaine can't help but notice Kurt's eyes haven't left the notebook. He also can't help but notice that Kurt freaking Hummel is sat opposite him, fawning over Blaine Anderson who he's never even met but sort of really has.
It's moments like this where Blaine wishes he could slap himself, ten times over, with whichever dead fish is closest to him. But then again, he considers as Kurt finally finally looks up and bares his teeth in what Blaine is completely assuming to be an intimate grin, he also considers himself pretty damn lucky.
So he sits back, waits to see where his poor social skills will take the afternoon, and prays to God behind his mug of coffee that Wes doesn't walk through the door.
"So you were pretty stupid, huh." They're forty minutes into their walk from the airport to whichever branch of Starbucks is nearest to Kurt's apartment, Blaine having just told Caitlin the disastrous story of his and Kurt's first meeting. Caitlin had folded her arms and refused to get into a cab that Blaine had kindly hailed, insisting that she wanted to see the city.
"It's the Big Apple, Blaine! I'm not gonna see nothing from inside a cab, we have those back home!"
As Blaine has never been one to argue with a woman (and an Anderson at that,) they'd waved off the clearly pissed driver in favour of taking to the streets and making their own way.
Unfortunately, Blaine also learns from the experience that his ideas will never go to plan, and he makes a mental note to stop trying to get the upper hand with his nine year old sister as he struggles to keep her balanced on his hip, two suitcases lamely pulled along behind them with his other hand.
"I suppose we were. Now, Caty, we really should talk about you walking like a normal human being-"
"It's hot, Blaine, and I'm tired."
"-and how strong your big brother is carrying your suitcase for you as well as his own, and how carrying you is making him a lot more tired than you could possibly be-"
"Did you not hear me?" Her left hand tightens around his neck and she points in the direction they're walking. "We're going all the way down there. We're gonna be walking for…for ages, Blaine, and I'm tired."
"I heard you first time, Caty." This is definitely defeat, Blaine thinks with an exasperated sigh. "Tell you what, if you walk by yourself for the next fifteen minutes, I will carry your bags and buy you an ice-cream." Take the offer, Blaine thinks, before my arms fall off. My arms will literally fall off. At the thought he can feel the joints at his shoulders loosen and sees himself suffering the fate of Woody in Toy Story, his arm is going to just rip off, and if Caitlin doesn't move pretty much now-
Silence. Has he actually won this? His little sister has actually surrendered?
"…nope. Now giddy up, horsey, we've got to go and see Kurt!" She kicks him lightly on the small of his back. "Giddy up!"
Sometimes Blaine forgets that's she's nine years old. He giddies up.
Author's notes: Hiya! It's a bit of a tired line, but this is the first time I've posted any work online so please be gentle (although I'll happily accept any criticism as long as it's constructive. You know, the helpful kind!) This is, at the moment, a one shot, simply because I can't think of anywhere to take it. I just had the scenes in my head and had to write them - know the feeling? So if anyone wants this to go anywhere, it probably could with a bit of thinking! Thanks so much for reading if you have :) Emma x