"Boys and girls are not permitted to be within six inches of each other."
The announcement echoed down the corridor while Kurt and Blaine were on their way to Divination. They paused and looked at each other.
"I wonder what happened that made her think that was necessary," Kurt commented.
Blaine laughed and pulled a face. "I'm really not sure we want to know, Kurt," he said, linking his hand in Kurt's. "But it'd seem we've got to have enough action to make up for all the straight couples here now."
Kurt blushed and tried to hold back a giggle. "Blaine!" he scolded, smiling and swatting at his boyfriend's shoulder.
Blaine winked at him and grinned, but shut his mouth obediently. "Well, I guess we can safely say that Professor Umbridge isn't a homophobe," he said.
"I suppose so," Kurt responded, as they made their way up the long Divination stairway.
Even in the Hufflepuff common room, tensions were running high. Everyone was feeling the effects of the new decree, and quite a few arguments had broken out between couples and friends. Blaine was surprised, though, when Kurt burst into the room clutching his arm and looking teary.
"Oh my god, Kurt, what happened?" Blaine exclaimed, rushing over to him and putting an arm around him. He barely even registered the boos and jealous cries that went with the movement, and led Kurt to the sofa near the fire that he'd bagged earlier that evening.
But Kurt seemed more angry than upset. "I can't sit next to Mercedes," he growled. "I was helping her with her Care of Magical Creatures essay and Umbridge suddenly appeared behind us and shot some spell to push us apart." He motioned at his arm. "I haven't had a chance to check the damage yet, but there is an excellent chance she's ruined all the hard work I've been putting into exfoliating!" he finished furiously.
Blaine sighed sympathetically and hugged Kurt tightly again.
"Hey, at least go upstairs, Blaine; don't milk it where we can all see you," a Hufflepuff prefect with long blonde hair called from where she was standing – six inches away from her boyfriend. There were shouts of agreement and Blaine and Kurt nodded and made their way up to their dorm.
"Couldn't you go to Mercedes' common room?" Blaine asked Kurt, thinking of the Gryffindor portrait. "The Fat Lady seems nice, and I bet Umbridge couldn't turn up and jinx you there."
Kurt shrugged dejectedly. "I don't know," he replied miserably. "But Snape's all for all Umbridge's decrees, so there goes hanging out with Rachel."
Blaine felt awful for Kurt. Luckily for him, he was allowed to hang out with both his best friend, Sam, and his boyfriend, but he could see how upsetting it was for Kurt not being able to hug his best friends.
"These decrees have just been getting ridiculous anyway," Kurt moaned. "I mean, 'teachers aren't allowed to give students information not strictly relating to the subject they teach'? I saw a first-year ask Professor Sprout the way to the bathroom and she didn't know if she could tell him!" He blinked away his tears and sighed.
Blaine didn't know what to do, so just sat with his arm tightly around Kurt as they sat on Kurt's bed, breathing in the smell of his hair.
Kurt wound his arms round Blaine's waist, letting his head fall onto Blaine's shoulder. "At least we can sit together," he smiled. "I feel like we've cheated the system."
"If I couldn't sit next to you because of Umbridge, I'd Crucio her myself," Blaine said.
Kurt gasped – Blaine had never said anything like that before. "That's a little extreme, isn't it?" he half-laughed.
Blaine looked Kurt in the eyes. "I would," he said. "Nothing and nobody is gonna take away my right to love you, Kurt, in whatever way I want." He pressed his forehead into Kurt's, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. "Never."
"Well, we'd go Crucio her together," Kurt smiled, cupping Blaine's jaw in his hand.
Blaine smiled back, looking into Kurt's beautiful Bambi eyes. "I love you so much," he murmured.
"I love you too," Kurt responded, tilting his face to Blaine's and kissing him briefly.
Blaine hoped that none of their dorm mates would come up to bed right now, but presently forgot about it as he leaned in to Kurt, pulling him in by his waist and feeling Kurt's hands on the back of his neck. Their lips met again and Blaine began to lose his sense of time and coherent thought, distracted by Kurt's smell and feel and taste as they kissed.
Kurt felt Blaine's fingers playing around his middle and finding his weak spot, ghosting over it and Kurt fell backwards on top of the ticklish point, pulling Blaine on top of him. It was a common make-out technique of Blaine's to get them lying down. And him on top, Kurt thought absently for a split-second before he lost himself again. Blaine's warmth and weight on top of him both gave Kurt butterflies and cured them.
There was always something magically hot about making out on a four-poster, and Blaine even felt confident enough to grab Kurt's tie to pull him closer when they broke apart for a moment. The small part of his brain that wasn't doing backflips noticed Kurt's robes had practically fallen off his shoulders and he smiled through the kiss that Kurt probably hadn't even noticed, and possibly even hadn't considered the creases that his tie would be suffering now as Blaine gripped it tightly with one hand, the other playing through Kurt's hair (the gel from which was now coming off on Blaine's fingers). But it would appear that Kurt, through some telepathic exchange, did realise, because at that very moment he shrugged off his robes and reached back round to hold Blaine's shoulders, playing with the material of the robes Blaine was still wearing.
Blaine took the hint and dropped Kurt's tie to tug off his own robes, hearing them drop ungraciously to the floor. Kurt immediately reached up, feeling Blaine's shirt and his chest underneath. Through some surprisingly skilled shoulder work and a fair bit of pushing, Kurt managed to roll the two of them so he was on top, his hands playing over Blaine's chest, neck and face. Blaine used the opportunity to wind his leg around Kurt's, pulling them even closer together and allowing Kurt's full weight to fall on top of him.
In all the movement, Blaine's shirt had become untucked and Kurt found the gap with his left hand, pulling shyly at the material while still kissing Blaine. Blaine felt Kurt's hand and smiled again, untangling his hand from Kurt's fringe and tugging his shirt all the way out in a moment. Kurt hesitated for a split-second before sliding his hand under Blaine's shirt, feeling his warm skin and travelling up to his pectorals. Now, this, he thought, is hot. If it were possible, they were kissing more fiercely than ever now. The last button on Blaine's shirt popped undone and the button was knocked by the movement of the boys onto the floor, neither of them noticing until Kurt felt the tautness of Blaine's shirt give way a little. He broke off the kiss and looked at the empty space on the white material.
"Oh my god," he laughed. "We broke your shirt!"
Blaine glanced down and laughed too. "Maybe it's a sign," he suggested, looking seductively up at Kurt with his big brown eyes. Kurt broke out in a smile and leant back into Blaine's kiss, slowing it a little to give him the concentration to undo a couple of Blaine's shirt buttons at the same time.
Meanwhile, Blaine was pulling on Kurt's tie again, but this time in an attempt to loosen it. He finally managed to do so and threw it to one side, the yellow glinting in his peripheral vision. Kurt's top shirt button had come undone.
After a few moments, Blaine let go of Kurt and quickly undid the rest of his own shirt buttons, sitting up a little so Kurt ended up straddling him. With Kurt's eager hands pushing the shirt off his shoulders, he shrugged out of it, leaning back onto the mattress with Kurt lying close on top of him, their legs intertwined and lips locked. Kurt was basking in the novelty of having Blaine be shirtless, and was running his hands across Blaine's torso gently.
Feeling more comfortable than ever with Kurt, Blaine rolled them over again and straddled Kurt, breaking away from kissing him to peck his cheek, his jaw, his neck. He breathed Kurt's smell for a moment before nipping him on the neck.
Kurt was about to shout at Blaine ("we've talked about this, biting me isn't hot!") when he felt Blaine suck at the skin to soothe it and realised what Blaine was doing. "Oh..." he choked out instead, feeling his eyes close without him thinking about it. When Blaine had finished giving Kurt a hickey, the two of them went back to kissing and Kurt could feel his trousers growing tighter.
"Ew! Guys!"
Blaine and Kurt broke their kiss and both turned their heads quickly to the door. Justin Finch-Fletchley was standing in the doorway, looking determinedly at the ceiling and not at them. They hadn't even heard him come in, although he must have been making some noise coming down the corridor and opening the door.
Kurt swiftly pushed Blaine off him, trying to seem casual in pulling the sheets to cover himself a little. He noted Blaine doing the same from the corner of his eye, and inwardly smiled.
"Hi, Justin," Blaine said awkwardly, looking guiltily up at their friend. "What are you doing in here?"
Justin held up a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages. "Thought I'd give you back the book you lent me," he explained, eyes now on the floor. He shuffled towards them a little and put the book down on Blaine's bed, the one next to Kurt's. He began staring at his own hands and fiddled with his nail. "But I'll tell everyone else not to come in," he added, leaving quickly.
"No, you don't have to – " Kurt began, but the door swung shut and he laughed to try to make it fell less awkward. "Oh, god, why? Why must we have communal dorms?" he groaned, chuckling.
Blaine put an arm round Kurt and rested his chin on Kurt's shoulder. "It's the decree all over again. No-one thinks about the gay guys."
That made Kurt actually laugh, and Blaine smiled. He glanced down and realised that the only thing he was wearing above his waist was his tie, twisted and knotted and somehow the wrong way round. "Oh, god," he said. "Justin just saw me shirtless."
Kurt looked at Blaine and continued to laugh. "Well, tell him hands off," he said. "Those pecs are mine."
Blaine grinned and kissed Kurt on the cheek. "Yep, they are," he agreed. "And Justin's just told everyone not to come in."
Blaine caught Kurt's eye and Kurt smiled. "I suppose he has. Just so long as you haven't lent anyone any other books," he added, "we could maybe..."
But his train of thought was severed when Blaine planted another kiss on his lips. "We could," Blaine agreed.