It had now been two weeks since Kurt started back to school. Kurt and Blaine hadn't spoken since that first day, much to the disdain of both men involved. Kurt was sad and embarrassed to find out that Blaine was a TA, meaning that yet another man would be unavailable to him. And it stung even worse knowing that the unavailable man was at least gay this time. Blaine was in the same boat. He was sad that he wouldn't be able to be with the most beautiful man he had ever met. But that was the problem. Kurt, technically, wasn't a man yet. He was still a teenager. He was off limits. Or, at least, that's what Blaine had to tell himself every morning when Kurt walked through the door, looking as fabulous as ever in jeans that hugged his ass in just the right wa- NO. Stop that.
Blaine had to try to talk himself out of falling for Kurt on a daily basis. He figured it wouldn't be too difficult, seeing as how he doesn't really even know Kurt on a personal level. He knows Kurt appears to be confident, which is completely endearing, and has amazing taste in clothes, and is smart. Like, reallyyyyy smart. He is a loyal friend to Mercedes, has a smile that makes Blaine feel weak at the knees, and has a body to die for. But, apart from that, it should be easy to not focus on Kurt... yep.
As long as Blaine kept his distance, he should be fine.
Too bad on the Monday of the third week of school, both Kurt and Blaine were called up to Madame Sophia's desk before class started.
Both boys slowly approached the front of the room, careful to keep their distance and not openly stare at one another.
"Good morning, boys," Madame Sophia greeted. "Kurt, I have a proposition for you, and Blaine, this involves you as well, which is why I have called you up here. Kurt, you are obviously far superior to your peers in the French language, and you don't really need this class. In fact, I believe you may know more French than me half the time. Which is why I talked to the school and they decided it would be more productive for both you and me if you helped Blaine out during class time in lieu of taking the class. You would still receive full credit, but would be an assistant to myself and Blaine instead of taking the class. I also noticed that you have a free period as the last period of the day, and, if you would be up for it, I would love to have someone help Blaine grade papers. I'm sure he would appreciate the help, as well. So what do you say? Will you be my assistant?"
Both Kurt and Blaine were in shock. Madame Sophia was suggesting that Kurt be an assistant- alongside Blaine, working with Blaine, sitting near Blaine, talking to Blaine.
The two men glanced at one another to gather how they felt about it, then, immediately, both said, "yes."
So it was settled. Blaine was sure saying yes was going to end up biting him in the ass, but, right now, he just couldn't find it in himself to care. He was going to get to know Kurt. Shit.
Kurt started his job as assistant immediately, which meant Kurt and Blaine found themselves sitting at the back of the room, sharing a desk so tiny that their legs kept brushing up against each other, both men blushing and averting their eyes from one another, glancing at one another when they thought it was safe to look, not five minutes later. Considering they hadn't spoken since Kurt asked Blaine out, it was a little more than awkward.
"I'm sorry," Kurt blurted out at the same time Blaine said, "We should be friends."
"What?" Both men asked at the same time.
"You first," Blaine said.
Kurt nodded, before starting, "I just wanted to apologize for coming on to you on the first day. It was extremely inappropriate of me. I just... I walked in the room and you were right there and you looked so good and I wasn't thinking and if I had known you were the TA I never would have done it, and I'm just sorry that I've made this into such an awkward situation."
Blaine stopped listening as soon as he heard Kurt say he was good-looking. He couldn't wipe the smile off of his face, no matter how stupid it made him look. It took him a second to realize Kurt had stopped talking.
"Ummm, Blaine? Earth to Blaine, you still with me?"
"What? Oh! I'm sorry! I must have tuned out. You find me good-looking?" Blaine asked, still smiling wide.
"Well, I mean... yeah," Kurt replied, mumbling into shoulder, turning his head to hide his blush. Then he turned his head to face Blaine to ask, " Is that all you got from that whole apology? Seriously, Blaine?"
Blaine couldn't help but smile at Kurt's sass. He found it adorable that he could go from embarrassed to snarky is less than two seconds.
"We should be friends," Blaine said, simply, still smiling.
"...What?" Kurt couldn't believe it. After all of this, Blaine wanted to be friends? He knew Kurt was attracted to him and he still wanted to be friends? That had never happened to Kurt before. He couldn't believe it!
"Yeah. We should be friends. I mean, we're practically co-workers now," Blaine shrugged.
Yeah, they were practically co-workers, except for the fact that Kurt was doing this for school credit instead of resume building and a career choice. And Kurt was seventeen years old and a senior in high school, while Blaine was twenty-one and a senior in college, doing this as a requirement to graduate and start his own job as a music teacher.
"Soo... friends?" Blaine asked, ignoring the voice in his head telling him this was a bad idea. That there was no way he could just be friends with this gorgeous boy sitting so close to him. That he would screw up and get fired and have people hate him and it was all going to blow up in his face. Yeah, he was just going to ignore that voice, because the only thing he knew for sure right now was that he had to get to know Kurt.
"Friends," Kurt replied, smiling.
A/N: I have the day off today! Which means I woke up and immediately wrote this chapter. I was going to wait to post it later on in the day, in case I suddenly thought of any other ideas to add to this chapter, but the response to this story was so great last night, and I dreamed about my story, and I'm just so excited about it all in general, I couldn't wait another second. Soooo, hopefully this chapter is good and entertaining enough! I like it, soo... :)
Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews! I'm so excited you guys like this story, because, let me tell you, I haven't been this excited about a story in a while, and it's making me super happy.
Disclaimer that I left off in chapter 1: I don't own Glee or any of these characters, except for Madame Sophia. She's all mine.
