Author's Note: I'm basing this series off of experiences that I've had, so none of them are too far-fetched - I've just twisted and played with what happened to me. Hopefully, it will be a bit of fun. Enjoy!
1. VOLUNTEERS
"Cooper! Let's go, please." Somehow, Blaine has been wrangled into taking Cooper to his girlfriend's house as his car broke down a couple of days back. He doesn't mind, not really, but he isn't going to let Coop know that.
"I'm here, I'm here." His older brother emerges at the top of the stairs with a small overnight bag. "You sure you're okay to pick me up tomorrow?"
"If I have toooo," he moans, a playful smile tugging at his lips.
"Let's go, squirt," Cooper says as he ruffles Blaine's hair and heads out the door. They sing along to the Hot 100 in the car and Blaine smiles as "Teenage Dream' comes on. He taps the steering wheel rhythmically and starts singing without even realizing.
"Your voice never fails to get me, Blainers," Cooper comments, humming along.
"Thanks Coop- hey, look!" Blaine points ahead to a guy who's walking down the road with an orange bib over a white t-shirt. There's no path, so Blaine swerves to the other side of the road as they go past. Up close, Blaine can see that the bib is printed with the logo of a charity that's very important to him: The Trevor Project.
Cooper's girlfriend lives around 4 miles from where they pass the Trevor volunteer, and so the drive continues.
"It's awesome that someone is trying to get donations for Trevor, it's a good cause," Blaine observes.
"Yeah, it is; I know that it means a lot more to you than you're willing to let on." Cooper smiles over at Blaine and his little brother nods. They've been living together in a shared apartment for the past fifteen months and Blaine really enjoys it. Their parents aren't around anymore, but Blaine doesn't need them when he's got Cooper.
Whilst Cooper wasn't physically present all that much in Blaine's high school life, he knows exactly how much he struggled. The loneliness, the endless days of being harassed and humiliated, the lowest moments when Blaine would call him up, breathless from tears and contemplating some seriously worrying things. Cooper can't even think about how broken Blaine would sound without wanting to punch something very, very hard.
He knows that the Trevor Project was an area of salvation for Blaine, in that he spoke to them when Cooper wasn't available, and he found common ground with others who had been through the same kind of thing. For Blaine to see a Trevor volunteer in Cleveland, Ohio of all places, it almost doesn't seem real.
Within the next few minutes, they arrive at Amanda's house. She rushes out and envelops Cooper in a big hug, then does the same to Blaine. They've been dating for around a year now and Blaine gets on with her surprisingly well. Before he knows it, they're being ushered inside for ice-cold drinks with chips and dips.
Blaine stays for about fifteen minutes before Coop starts to look at him funny and he realizes that his older brother wants to be alone with his girlfriend.
He starts to say his goodbyes when a crunch of gravel outside alerts Amanda and the boys to a visitor.
All three of them head out the front door to see none other than the Trevor volunteer they passed on the road. Who, Blaine finds, is extremely cute up close. He also looks kinda sweaty, but Blaine doesn't mind. In fact, it makes him look kinda hot (in more way than one).
He waves shyly and smiles at them all. "Hey there, people."
Blaine turns to look at Cooper, who just so happens to be raising his eyebrows at him.
"Cooper, it's the guy! The guy from the road." He smiles and sniggers at his younger brother's enthusiasm.
"I know," he says, patting Blaine on the back. The volunteer is stood there with a bemused look on his face, shifting from foot to foot. Blaine whips himself around and smiles, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"Sorry, I, er, my brother and I, we passed you on the road quite a few miles back," Blaine finally manages, ears turning red.
"Did you? I've come from quite a way back, yeah." He looks down at the ground and shuffles forward a bit. "I'm training a girl at the moment and she's got the car, so I carried on by foot."
"It's really hot out here, I bet that wasn't fun!" Blaine has no idea where this confidence has come from, but he just likes the aura this guy is giving off and he wants to know more.
He laughs and shakes his head. "No, it's not the best. But, y'know, it's all worth it if we raise awareness." Blaine nods looks at the logo of the charity he's so often rang. The volunteer notices this and smiles at him. "You heard of us before?"
Blaine nods and steps down from the porch so he's stood next to him. Behind him, he senses that Cooper and Amanda step a little farther from him and closer to the door. "Yeah, I have. I mean, I rang you guys a lot back in high school." It comes out of his mouth before he can even process it. What he doesn't realize is that in one short sentence, he's told the guy he's gay and that he used a crisis hotline a lot.
Whoops.
He's not embarrassed about admitting his sexuality and especially not to someone who volunteers for a charity specializing in gay youth. He's just experienced so much aggravation and prejudice against who he likes that telling people will always scare him.
It doesn't seem to faze him at all though; he just smiles even wider (if that's even possible). "I'm glad we could be of use to you, I really am." There's nothing about his tone which makes Blaine suspicious that this is just another routine performance. He seems to be absolutely genuine. Blaine likes that. "I kinda forgot the most important part." He looks over to Cooper and Amanda, who are now practically standing on top of each other they're that close. "I'm Kurt and I'm a volunteer at the Trevor Project. I presume you know who we are?" he says, addressing the other two. Cooper and Amanda both nod.
"Blaine, we need to go and do some … stuff. Right, Amanda?" Cooper says, tightening his grip around his girlfriend's waist.
"Right," she says, laughing. "I think what Cooper is trying to say is that we're going to be busy, but you can stay out here with Kurt." Blaine nods almost too enthusiastically, and Kurt laughs.
"That's fine, have fun," Kurt jokes. They head inside, but not before Cooper winks cheekily at Blaine and mouths 'thanks'.
Once the door is shut, Kurt seems to relax a whole lot. He steps back from Blaine and stretches. When he does, his thin white crew neck rides up, leaving Blaine to spot his milky white torso, and once he does, he can't seem to stop staring. Touch, feel, caress, kiss, lick- Kurt's words interrupt his train of less than appropriate thoughts. "So, Trevor."
Blaine hums; walks over to his car. He tries not to notice Kurt's face fall and the possibility that it's because he thinks Blaine might be leaving. "Come sit, you more than deserve it." Kurt smiles and walks over, gladly accepting the offer of a seat. He and Blaine sit side-by-side on the bonnet of his car, feet resting on the grill.
"You're Blaine, right?"
"Yeah, I am. Sorry, I didn't realize I hadn't told you," Blaine says, staring at the gravel in front of him.
"No, it's fine." A silence drops between the two of them, both wanting to talk but neither knowing what to utter. There's a cool breeze in the air; Blaine's slightly too-long curls bounce around on his forehead. He raises a hand to steady them and notices Kurt's coiffed hair doesn't so much as stir.
"I think it's, well, I think it's really amazing of you to walk around in this heat and tell people about a charity for gay kids in Ohio." He stops, then adds quietly, "I don't think I'm anywhere near that brave."
Kurt looks over at him and smiles sadly. "Blaine, you're brave for just being an openly gay guy in Ohio. That's enough of a step, I think." Blaine doesn't believe that one bit, but Kurt says words so prettily that he can't disagree. "Also, today was really successful. I've only got one flyer left. And before you ask, I didn't start with just one."
Blaine looks up in shock (and also amusement) as Kurt passes him the last remaining flyer. It's white, with important statistics and facts highlighted in the trademark orange color. "That's, wow. I never would've thought that would be possible. You must be really good at this."
Kurt chuckles; a lovely noise that Blaine wants to hear more of. "Not really, there were at least ten people who slammed their doors in my face. I guess I'm just passionate about things that matter to me."
There are literally no cons to Kurt right now. Drawing on all of the flirting tips Cooper has given him, he tries to initiate something more. "I'm sure it's got something to do with you. I'd never slam a door in your face, that's for definite."
"That's, hmm-" Kurt coughs. "That's very kind of you. I'm not sure I'd be able to slam a door in your face either." Blaine feels like he could float off into the stars right about now. But he'd take Kurt with him, of course.
"Why thank you, kind sir," Blaine says as he stands up and bows mockingly. Kurt sniggers and stands up also. They stand in close proximity to each other for a few minutes, simply smiling and talking about the weather (God only knows why). He's so close to Blaine now that he can count all the individual hairs that make up each of his curls.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful?" Kurt wonders whether it's too forward, but the way Blaine flushes bright red and smiles widely tells him that it isn't.
"No, they haven't."
"That's a great shame," Kurt says breathlessly, stepping even closer to Blaine. "They really should do, because you are breathtakingly, stunningly beautiful." Blaine puts a hand onto Kurt's waist (breathe breathe breathe) and their faces move in-sync. Just as Blaine can feel Kurt's small breaths on his lips, a door bursts open and his freaking brother appears.
"Blaine Anderson, why haven't you- Oh." Cooper stops just short of the car and gives them a sheepish grin. Blaine has stepped away from Kurt, both of them disappointed about this fact. "I'm going to go back in now."
"Yeah," Blaine mutters. "You do that." Cooper runs back towards the house, smiling to himself.
"I'll ring you later, Blainers!" Cooper yells, laughing. Kurt sheepishly looks at Blaine and they start giggling like teenage girls. Blaine doesn't really know why, just that it's nice being with Kurt.
"I'd best be getting off." Just like that, Blaine feels like trash. They were going to kiss and now he just wants to leave? "I've got to get back to Santana, the other volunteer." He rubs his hands together awkwardly and steps backwards. "It was nice meeting you Blaine; you seem like a really nice guy."
Blaine nods and smiles falsely, unsure of what to say now. He turns around to get his keys off the bonnet and when he does, Kurt's already walking down the driveway. He's not getting away that easily.
Blaine gets into the car and starts the engine faster than he's ever done before. He reverses and makes the tires spin as he accelerates towards the end of the driveway. He passes Kurt walking on the grassy verse, and comes to a complete stop where the driveway meets the main road.
Blaine keeps his eye on Kurt in his rear-view mirror, and then unwinds his window as he approaches.
"Kurt?" he says. His head flies up, shock lining his face.
"Yeah?" Kurt stands next to the car, looking at Blaine with those ocean-blue eyes.
"Can I give you a lift?"
"Sure. Yeah. That'd be great, thank you." Kurt races around to the passenger side, and Blaine moves his phone off the seat just as the door opens. Quickly, he texts Cooper that he's left and puts it back down on the center console.
"I couldn't just let you walk all the way back, could I?" Blaine says, pulling onto the road.
"Well, you could've, but I guess this shows how nice you are."
"I'm only this nice to people I actually like," Blaine grins.
"Fair enough," Kurt says, laughing.
There's a silence as Blaine drives, until he glances over to see Kurt on playing on his phone. Wait, Kurt has the same case as him. Wait, that's his phone!
"What're you doing?!" Blaine asks incredulously. He puts his turn signal on and pulls over to the side of the road. He yanks his phone out of Kurt's hands and glances down at the screen. On the display is his contacts page, at the 'K' section. Blaine notices that Kurt's name is there, and upon clicking on it, there's a number too.
"I was just putting my number in your phone. It was still unlocked, so I thought it'd be a nice surprise when I text you and my name is already there. I got your number- sorry, I'll get out." Kurt moves to unbuckle his seatbelt, but Blaine's hand on top of his stops him.
"Don't go anywhere, please. I overreacted, I'm sorry." Blaine begs for him to understand. When Kurt nods, he silently thanks all things high and mighty. As he starts driving again, he explains his behavior. "Once in high school, I lost my phone. Well, it'd been stolen. Some guys that tormented me decided to find out everything about me from my phone, god knows how. They outed me, humiliated me and made my life hell, all because of my stupid phone. I didn't have anyone to talk to so I told my phone everything, hence the complete ending of my high school life." He finally takes a breath, unsure of whether he just shouldn't have said anything at all.
Kurt tries to process what he's just said and what this must have looked like to Blaine. "God, Blaine, I'm sorry. I honestly would never do anything like that to you. I mean, those guys were jerks, probably still are jerks, and you didn't, don't, deserve that. I am really sorry, I didn't-"
"Hey, Kurt, it's okay. I just wanted to tell you why I freaked out." Blaine's hand is resting on the gearstick, and it jumps slightly when Kurt's hand appears on top of his. The warmth is nice.
Before either of them can say anything else, Kurt's indicating that Blaine needs to turn off the main road so he can find Santana, and more importantly, the car. Blaine's stomach starts to wobble at the thought of letting Kurt go, so in a massive burst of new-found confidence, he pulls the car into a lay-by and ignores Kurt's yelps of protest.
In a swift movement, he unbuckles his seatbelt and puts his hand onto Kurt's cheek, pulling him in close for a kiss. Kurt tastes a bit sweaty, but also manly and like strength (that doesn't make sense to him, but what the hell. He tastes awesome). Kurt's kissing him back, putting a hand on his waist and leaning as far towards him as his seatbelt allows.
They pull back and Kurt looks like shock personified. "Hello there, Mr. Confidence."
Blaine laughs, squeezing Kurt's hand. "Sorry, was that, y'know, too much too soon?"
"Usually I'd say yes and probably run, but not with you. Not at all," Kurt says.
"Usually? Do strangers often ambush you in their cars?" Blaine mock exclaims.
"No, you'd be the first," Kurt replies, leaning over again. Their lips meet and Blaine smiles into it, not quite believing his luck.
When they stop a couple of minutes later, Kurt directs Blaine to where Santana and the car are. Stood beside a little Ford hatchback is a Latina girl, dressed in a tight white t-shirt, donning the same Trevor vest as Kurt. She's on her phone, and it's only when Kurt calls her name that she looks up.
"Hey, Hummel."
"Hummel?" Blaine asks from his side of the car.
"My surname," Kurt answers. "Yours?"
"Anderson."
"Ah, got it." They smile at each other privately, sharing a sweet moment.
Santana coughs. "Excuse me? Who's this?" Blaine's a little surprised at how brash she is for a trainee, but Kurt doesn't seem to mind.
"We go back a long way, she's always like this," Kurt answers in response to Blaine's bemused expression. "Santana, this is Blaine. He's someone I want you to be nice to, because I'm definitely sure you'll be seeing more of him."
Blaine just grins.