A/N: I've got some ideas from other authors. If you see something that was in your story, it may very well be. Thanks in advance.
Secret Admirer / Ch. 3 - Demo
Author: TerribleSpy
Rating: T
Characters: Kurt, Blaine, Jeff
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. I just want to play in that universe.
~.oOo.~
Where does this guy find these things? wondered Kurt. At least, he's not buying tickets to shows that will go to waste. The secret admirer email's contained a link from the BlogFAIL site showing a picture of a bow tie in a pink plastic box labeled EMERGENCY BOW TIE…FOR ALL FORMAL OCCASIONS. There was also a link to a Fresh Aire Interview with Grant Achatz, a high-end chef who specialized in molecular gastronomy and avant guarde food. He'd lost his taste temporarily due to tongue cancer. Listening to that interview, Kurt was amazed both at the extent of what this guy did with food and what he went through recovering from cancer. Kurt wasn't half the foodie that Jeff was but the idea of having something stripped from you that's so fundamental to who you are, like a chef not being able to taste, made Kurt stop and think. What would I do if I couldn't sing? He forwarded the email to Jeff with a note "Thought you'd like this~/K".
Then another thought occurred to Kurt. Should I be encouraging this guy? It had to be one of the Warblers. They were the only ones that knew Kurt and Jeff had spent time together. Whoever this secret admirer was also knew Kurt all to well.
Kurt left an untied bow tie tacked to his door before leaving for breakfast that morning. When he went back for books for his afternoon classes, there was Post It with a little happy face stuck under the bow tie. This is sort of getting creepy. thought Kurt.
~.oOo.~
Jeff. Mercedes and Finn wanted to meet him for probably the same reasons.
"Cedes, we're just friends." said Kurt over the phone that evening.
"Ah huh. Yeah, like you trade in one not-boyfriend for another when the old one has an identity crisis." Mercedes was in fine snippy form tonight. I must come off as really fickle, tossing one boy for another. thought Kurt.
"I'm still friends with Blaine." Kurt said petulantly. "He's an amazing performer. We have coffee every week."
"So he's not the one you want to ride off with into the sunset and make gay babies with?" she asked pointedly.
"That's just it. I had that feeling when we met. I mean, he sang Teenage Dream to me in a room full of boys, smiling and winking right at me the whole time. And he helped me with all the bullying. But that glowing crush feeling is gone. He's just Blaine now.
"Jeff is different. We hang out. We talk. There's a little flirting. But I don't feel like he's trying to rescue me from anything. He's just there.
"And David mentioned that I might be a little co-dependent with Blaine. You remember David?" Kurt knew full well that Mercedes and David had this "admire from afar" thing going on.
"Co-what?" Mercedes asked. Kurt had looked it up as it wasn't covered in his AP Psychology class. He did not like what he had read. It spoke to closely of Kurt and Blaine's pre-blowup relationship, with Kurt being so much a victim and Blaine constantly trying to fix his problems.
"Wikipedia is your friend. You might find it enlightening, given the level of drama amongst the various members of New Directions." Kurt heard faint key clicks in the background.
"Oh. My. God. Someone needs to talk to Rachel and Finn." said Mercedes.
"What fun would that be?" said Kurt innocently.
"I always knew you could be evil. Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility." said Mercedes.
Kurt snorted. "That sounds like something Jeff would say."
"What about this boy? When am I going to meet him?"
"Over Easter break. The Warblers will be rehearsing for Regionals a lot, but we managed to get some time off. Jeff invited me to a Passover Seder at his home in Columbus and he's coming over that weekend for Easter dinner. I'll have to make sure Carol doesn't make a ham."
~.oOo.~
The next morning, Jeff met up with Kurt at breakfast wearing a big grin and giving Kurt a little shoulder bump as they stood in line at the dining hall's breakfast bar.
"So you liked that?" asked Kurt.
"Oh yeah. It's obvious to me why you have a secret admirer. Count me in as one of the not-so-secret ones." said Jeff. Kurt blushed a little.
Kurt had his usual fresh fruit, yoghurt, and orange juice while Jeff had cottage cheese, banana, a toasted bagel, cream cheese, and juice. This was the first time they'd eaten breakfast together and Kurt's eyebrow went up on noticing Jeff's breakfast choices.
"What? I need carbs and protein in the morning or I'll never make it to lunch. The bagel is for later with my morning cuppa." said Jeff a little defensively.
"Oh. You're a tea drinker. That settles it. We can never be together." said Kurt playfully as they sat down to eat.
"My grandmother got up every morning at 6am to plug in the coffee pot for grandfather even though she can't stand the taste of coffee. If she can do it, so can I. Anyway they make coffee makers with Ardino-based controllers you can trigger from a smartphone or via the web or in a cron job. If they don't, I could cobble something together. Plug in a coffee pot at 6am? Feh." Jeff was grinning, playing along with Kurt.
"Listen to you." Kurt said.
"I do drink good coffee, when I'm in the mood. But a good cuppa in the morning and afternoon is more me. We should have afternoon tea sometime. I'll make scones."
"They'll let you use the ovens here to bake?" Kurt said somewhat surprised. He'd saved up his stress-baking urges for when he went home on the weekends, often leaving several dozen cookies for Burt, Carol, and mostly Finn.
"I have my ways." Jeff smiled mysteriously.
"Oh, before I forget, are we all set for our little demo at Warbler practice this afternoon?" asked Kurt.
"We are. When I mentioned your idea to some of the guys, they were really excited. We spent some time over the weekend working on some things. It's rough but should be enough to illustrate where we might go. How's the orchestration going?"
"I'm done with my tracks. Blaine and I rehearsed the numbers on Sunday. Now if we can only convince the Council to listen to us…" Kurt sounded a little worried.
"Relax. Blaine is on the debating team. Wes, David, and Thad are helpless against his Jedi mind tricks." Jeff said with a grin.
~.oOo.~
The Warbler meeting opened as usual with Wes banging his gavel. Blaine had already spoken to the Council about their ideas. He made it clear it wasn't an audition, just a demonstration of a concept. Kurt started the MP3 player. The track was mostly Kurt doing a quiet baseline to imitate a solo piano. Kurt started singing quietly, following the original recording's arrangement.
When you're weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes,
I will dry them all (all)
Kurt continued, his voice perfectly carrying the song. At some point, there were beat box symbols. Then a bass guitar. Was that Kurt? thought Wes, somewhat shocked. The background now sounded like a string orchestra made of voices. Blaine joined Kurt in the next verse.
Sail on silver girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
Kurt took over the rest of the song making it soar as only he could.
Oh, if you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Kurt knew it worked when there was utter silence for a full 10 seconds before room erupted in applause. Just like Defying Gravity thought Kurt. Wes and David both looked stunned.
Blaine grinned. "But wait…there's more." Kurt selected the next track which started with a beat box drum beat. Blaine opened his mouth and just wailed.
Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music,
Any old way you choose it.
It's got a back beat, you can't blues it,
Any old time you use it.
It's gotta be rock roll music,
If you wanna dance with me.
Until Blaine tried to sing this song in rehearsal, he didn't know how hard it was to perform flat out. To give him a rest, Kurt joined in for the rest of the song. The two voices meshed perfectly.
I've got no kick against modern jazz,
Unless they try to play it too darn fast.
And lose the beauty of the melody,
Until they sound just like a symphony.
Ahead of time, some of the guys had taken time to clear out space so they could do some of the dance steps. One by one, Jeff, Nick, and 4 other guys joined in to perform a series of salsa spins, back flips, and other steps. Kurt cringed when he saw the backflips in the confined space, but Nick was spotting Jeff to make sure he didn't get hurt. Additional recorded voices to fill out the verses joined in the backing track because at about half way, you could tell Blaine was running out of gas. Kurt and a recording of Blaine ended up finishing the song. We're going to have to rework that to be an ensemble piece, cut it, and put it last so Blaine doesn't hurt himself. thought Kurt.
All Warblers were on their feet when the song ended. Wes, David, and Thad were all wearing huge grins. Wes called for order.
"Gentlemen, do we have a couple anthems here?" said Wes.
Needless to say, it was unanimous.
~.oOo.~
A/N: I'm having lots of fun with random stuff I come across on the net or in my life thinking how it might be good to send it to Kurt. So far, that's the loose framework around this story.