Besides a few texts so that Blaine had Kurt's number, they didn't speak again until Wednesday. Blaine spent lunch the next day with some of the boys from glee including Finn, Puck, Sam and Artie. Kurt once again was absent at lunch, but Blaine didn't question it in case he looked too obvious. The boys chatted football, Finn mentioning that the football coach, Coach Bieste, was still looking for a half decent kicker and if Blaine wanted to he could try out.
Blaine was grateful to find that on Wednesday he shared a history class with Kurt. However, his mood dampened when he noticed who Kurt was sitting next too. Alex. He took a seat behind them, a quick smile sent in Kurt's direction. Kurt's lips twitched slightly, but he almost immediately looked back down at his notebook where he appeared to be doodling. Blaine did catch him after class, however. Alex lent down and whispered something in his ear that Blaine didn't catch, and stormed off down the corridor. Kurt and Blaine agreed that after school, they would meet outside so that Kurt could follow Blaine in his car back to Blaine's house.
After school they did just that, chatting as they made their way to their vehicles. Blaine noticed that Kurt's grin was back, which in itself made Blaine's mood lighter.
They reached Blaine's house and, after abandoning their shoes at the door, Blaine led them into the kitchen.
"Would you like a drink? Or a snack if you're hungry?" Blaine offered. Kurt didn't answer for a moment, too busy staring around Blaine's kitchen in awe.
"Just water please," he mumbled. As Blaine unloaded two glasses from the cupboard, Kurt asked, "Where are your parents?"
"Oh, they're at work. They'll be home in about half hour," Blaine answered.
"I see. You're kitchen is amazing," said Kurt.
"You think?" asked Blaine, looking around the room itself. "I don't really cook so I don't know what half of this does." He gestured to the gadgets and gizmos spread around the kitchen worktops.
"I have to cook for my dad so I'm a bit of a culinary nerd. Well, my dad's girlfriend, Carole, has been cooking for him recently. I think she feels it's not my duty to cook or something, but I enjoy it. I could certainly do with a lot of these," Kurt explained.
"That's pretty cool. I wish I could cook. The best I can do is spaghetti bolognese. It's the only dish I'm practiced in as I make it for my parents every year on their anniversary."
"That's really sweet of you," Kurt commented.
"Thanks. Want to work upstairs?" asked Blaine, taking his and Kurt's glasses. Kurt nodded, squeezing the strap of his bag. He followed Blaine upstairs and was led into Blaine's room.
Blaine's room was almost exactly what he was expecting. The walls were cobalt blue and held many decorations including canvas pictures and a clock made from an old record. His bed sat in the middle of one wall, covered with a white and blue check duvet. Around it were cube shaped shelves covered in books, photos, music speakers, sheet music and trophies. A TV was hung on the wall opposite and underneath was a desk which held Blaine's laptop, school books and pens.
"I like your room," Kurt commented.
"Thanks," said Blaine. "Remind me to show you the music room later."
"You have a music room?" asked Kurt.
"Yeah. We had a spare room and our piano was taking up a lot of space in the dining room, so we moved it there, but we decided it looked a bit empty with just a big piano in the middle of a room, so we decorated it and added my guitars and keyboard and violin," Blaine explained.
"Wow. You play all of those?"
Blaine nodded an affirmative. "I've also been known to play a mean triangle," he joked. Kurt nudged him with his elbow and grinned. "Anyway, what shall we do for our duet? I'm sure we'll find something that'll sound great with both our voices."
"Want to trade iPods and see if we can find any common songs?" Kurt asked.
"Sure," said Blaine, reaching over his bed to grab his iPod, which was already plugged into his speakers. He offered it to Kurt who handed over his iPod in return. They scrolled through their songs in silence, each commenting every so often with an "awful lot of Wicked on here" or "do you really have a playlist dedicated to Katy Perry?". Blaine perked up when he found a song that he knew he had on his own iPod and knew very well.
"Hey, how about Candles by Hey Monday!? I love that song!" Blaine suggested.
"I like," Kurt commented. "From your iPod I expected you to pick something a little more top 40, to be honest." Blaine didn't reply, just stuck his tongue out childishly at Kurt, which elicited a chuckle from the boy. "We should get the lyrics and highlight them to show who's singing what."
"I'll print them," Blaine said, going over to his laptop and starting it up. He found the lyrics online and printed them, running downstairs to collect the prints. They started by splitting the song up between them and highlighted in different colours the parts they'd be singing.
Not long after, the front door slammed and the boys heard a voice call up, "We're home!"
"In my room, mom!" Blaine called back. He then looked at Kurt with a smile and said, "When we've finished this, I'll go top up our drinks and introduce you."
They finished splitting the song in no time and, as Blaine suggested, went downstairs to top up their drinks and so that Kurt could meet Blaine's parents. He found his parents in the kitchen unloading shopping. As they entered, Blaine made their presence known by greeting them with, "Hey mom, dad." His parents turned to smile at them.
Blaine's parents were nothing like Kurt was expecting, in the sense that they looked nothing like Blaine. Blaine's mother was about the same height as Blaine with deep green eyes, sandy blonde hair which was swept up in an elaborate style, and soft features. Blaine's father also had light hair, a light brown closer to Kurt's colour than Blaine's and his eyes were a muddy brown. Both looked mid to late thirties, younger than his own father. But overall, he had no idea where Blaine got his dark hair and hazel eyes from.
"Hey, honey! And you must be Kurt! Lovely to meet you," Blaine's mother greeted them immediately. She rushed over, dragging her husband behind her, and offered a hand for Kurt to shake.
"It's lovely to meet you Mrs Anderson, Mr Anderson," Kurt said, nodding at each parent in turn.
"Call us Linda and Andrew, son," insisted Andrew, reaching for Kurt's hand to shake after Linda had dropped it.
"It's lovely to meet you Linda and Andrew," Kurt corrected himself.
"Will you be staying for dinner, honey?" asked Linda.
Kurt glanced at Blaine and then looked between the two parents as he said, "Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude."
"Nonsense. It'll be nice to have a new face around the table for once, right Blaine?" Linda said.
"Yeah. Stay, Kurt," said Blaine, grinning at his friend.
"I- er, sure," Kurt answered, almost nervously. "Dad has Carole making him dinner so I guess it'll save me making something when I get home." He finished with an unsure smile.
"Great," said Linda, enthusiastically.
"I'm just going to get us some drinks and then I believe we're going upstairs to practice our duet," Blaine informed them, winking at Kurt. Kurt just chuckled at his friend, leaving Blaine to marvel at the sound.
An hour or so later, the two boys went down for dinner. Blaine was still admiring the memory of Kurt's voice. He knew Kurt would have a great voice; listening to his talking voice and the knowledge of him being a countertenor was enough to know that, but he didn't know how great it would be. His voice was just as beautiful as he was and it fit so perfectly with Blaine's.
After the talk of glee had died down at dinner, Blaine mentioned, "Oh, yeah, dad. I was talking to some of the guys from glee and the football coach is looking for a kicker if I want to try out."
"That's great, son!" exclaimed Andrew.
"Following in my footsteps, Blaine?" chuckled Kurt. Blaine furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at Kurt's statement so Kurt clarified, "I had a stint as kicker in my sophomore year."
"Never thought you were the type to play football," admitted Blaine.
"I'm not. It's a long story and I only played one game, which was actually the only game they won that season, but of course I put my own twist on it."
"And that was?"
"Erm, I taught the whole team the dance to Single Ladies by Beyoncé and they danced to throw the other team off. I also used it to help when I kicked the ball," Kurt mumbled, ducking his head slightly.
The whole table laughed and Blaine asked, "They actually went with it?"
"They weren't very happy, but the coach at the time told them they had to," Kurt said. "They were quite good actually. I didn't play football after that, but I'm always kept up to date. Especially now that my half step-brother is on the team."
"Half step-brother?" asked Andrew.
"Oh, my dad's girlfriend's son, Finn. He's not quite my step-brother yet, but I know for a fact that my dad has been looking at engagement rings so it's only a matter of time," Kurt explained.
"Finn is Carole's son?" asked Blaine. "I didn't know that."
"Don't worry. Carole's a lot smarter than Finn," Kurt joked. Blaine chuckled.
Linda went to ask Kurt something else when the sound of Defying Gravity rang out through the dining room. Kurt gave the family an apologetic look and took out his phone, quickly answered with an "I'll call you back," and hung up, setting it to silent. "Sorry," he said.
Linda went on to ask Kurt about McKinley and Kurt answered with a smile, ignoring the fact that his phone was vibrating loudly in his pocket.
"You sure you don't want to take that? Whoever it is must be dying to get to you," Andrew offered.
Kurt shook his head and said, "No, it's fine. I don't want to be rude."
"Your dad?" asked Blaine.
"No, erm, Alex actually. I forgot to tell him I was coming here so he probably expects me to be at home," Kurt explained, not meeting Blaine's eyes.
"Good friend?" asked Linda.
"Boyfriend," Blaine corrected them.
"They as cute as Niff?" questioned Linda.
"Niff are pretty difficult to beat in the category of cuteness," Blaine chuckled.
"Niff?" asked Kurt.
"My friends from my old school, Nick and Jeff. They've been together for as long as anyone can remember and they're the most adorable couple ever. They come as a package deal so people got tired of calling them Nick and Jeff and shortened them to Niff," Blaine explained.
"That in itself is pretty adorable," Kurt commented, but he didn't appear comfortable on the subject. He took a bite of chicken and looked up to Blaine's parents. "This chicken is amazing. What did you do to it?" he asked, effectively changing the subject.
Linda went on to talk about seasonings and cooking techniques which gave Blaine time to watch as Kurt became more comfortable. He was certain now that his theories about Alex were correct, but he didn't want to ask Kurt. Kurt was just beginning to become his friend and if it was brought up then he might shut Blaine out and avoid him. Blaine didn't want that at all.
When they'd finished dinner, Kurt excused himself to go to the bathroom, so Blaine decided he'd go set up the music room to show to Kurt. After taking his plate into the kitchen he hurried along the landing to the music room, but paused when he heard mumbling coming from the bathroom. He didn't want to eavesdrop, but he was very curious so he stopped and listened.
"I told you I'm sorry, Alex, but I didn't want to be rude," he heard Kurt mumble, his voice sounding nervous. There was a pause as he waited for Alex's response. "No it wasn't just my dad, I'm not home... I'm at Blaine's... No, no, no, it's nothing like that, we're just practicing for a duet for glee... No, I am not telling him it's off, we've already finished preparing it... Please, Alex, I promise nothing is going to happen... Okay... I-I understand." At this point he heard a sniff and hoped Kurt wasn't crying. "Okay, I'll talk to you when I get home... Bye, bye."
Blaine was fixed to the spot in worry after what he'd just heard and had to practically run to the music room when he realised Kurt would be exiting the bathroom anytime soon. Sure enough, just as he reached the door of the music room, Kurt emerged from the bathroom. Blaine called him over and Kurt smiled at him as he walked into the room.
Blaine tried to ignore his red rimmed eyes.
