AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry this is so short! I think you'll understand when you reach the end...thank you everyone for the fabulous reviews :]
Also, I think this might be getting a little bit into "AU"...but not really, because I'm pretty much only giving a little backstory...oh well.
"Wake up!" Kurt said, smacking Blaine with a pillow the next morning. "You snore like a lawnmower," he said, giggling.
"What tiiiiiime is iiiitttt?" Blaine moaned, picking his head up and looking blearily around the room.
"Ten," Kurt said simply, skipping over to the window and opening the blinds.
"Ten?" Blaine yelped, shooting straight up. "What about school?"
"It's cancelled," Kurt said, gesturing out the window to the snow-covered landscape. "There's at least half a foot out there, and it's still falling."
Blaine fell back against the pillows. "You sure are chipper this morning."
Kurt shrugged as he came to sit back on the bed. "Snow days are fun."
"Too cold," Blaine grumbled, sticking his head under the pillow.
"Oh, no, Mister!" Kurt said, pulling the blankets back from Blaine. "I've got another fun day planned!"
Blaine moved his head enough to squint at Kurt with one eye. "Oh really?"
"Well, no, not really. But I thought we'd go get coffee, at least."
Blaine sighed and put his head back under the pillow. "Fiiiine."
Kurt smiled.
The coffee shop was busy; it seemed like everyone had had the same idea. As Kurt and Blaine stood in line, Kurt felt Blaine's hand slide easily into his, and he swung them back and forth a little, a slight smile on his face. Holding Blaine's hand always warmed his heart.
As they stepped forward in line, the perky blond barista that usually served them caught sight of them, their entwined hands, and her face broke into a smile. She opened her mouth to take their order when suddenly someone tapped Kurt on the shoulder. He and Blaine turned inward, keeping their hands together.
An older woman stood there, her chained glasses sliding down her pinched nose.
"Excuse me," she said in a withering voice, even though she already had their attention. "I don't mean to be rude-" but Kurt had a feeling she would be anyway-"but do you think you boys could..."
"Yes?" Blaine prompted, raising his eyebrows and squeezing Kurt's hand.
The woman started out with a lowered voice, but soon raised it to bring the entire coffee shop's attention to the exchange. "I'm only saying that this public display of affection is making the other patrons uncomfortable."
Blaine looked around. "Is it, now?"
"Blaine, stop," Kurt muttered, trying to pull his hand away as he lowered his eyes, but Blaine held fast.
"No, Kurt. I won't stop holding your hand. Because you are my boyfriend and I want to hold your hand."
The woman stared at him, dumbstruck. "Your behavior is offensive!"
"Blaine," Kurt pleaded, his cheeks flaming red.
"I think you're the offensive one here, ma'am," Blaine said politely. The entire coffee shop had fallen silent, and was now staring at them. "You're the only one who's said anything, after all."
"It's not as if they weren't all thinking it!" she said heatedly, looking around.
Blaine looked around again. When no one spoke up, he said, "You see? No one-"
"Actually," a voice cut him off. "I'll admit it does make me slightly uncomfortable." A middle-aged man in a wind jacket stood up, raising his hand. "I just wasn't bold enough to say anything."
"And I'm not sure how I feel about having my children exposed to this sort of thing," a woman in the back said. Her two kids, a son and daughter, just stared at Kurt and Blaine's hands.
Blaine looked around at all of the people, some of whom were looking away, out the window, or at the floor. Others were staring at them, whether incredulously, or indignantly, or just curiously. He opened his mouth to speak when there was another tap on his shoulder. He turned. A manager of the coffee shop was standing there, and Kurt was blushing even deeper.
"Sir," the manager said, not looking at Blaine. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The blond barista looked at the floor.
Blaine stared at him silently for a moment. "Fine," he said. "Come on, Kurt. Let's go to Starbucks." He tugged Kurt, who was still red as a fire truck, by the hand out of the coffee shop.
"Why did you do that, Blaine?" Kurt hissed as they reached the car.
"Because that makes me so angry, Kurt!" Blaine shouted, kicking a tire. "It isn't fair that you and I have to hide what we have together! It isn't right that we have to be ashamed of each other! Why should I have to keep you, my boyfriend, a secret? Are you ashamed of me, Kurt?"
He said this last part so softly, Kurt wasn't sure if he'd heard correctly. He raised his eyes from the pavement to look at Blaine, who was staring right back at Kurt, the faintest trace of hurt and worry clouding his eyes.
"No," Kurt said softly, then louder. "Of course not. I could never be ashamed of you." Because I love you, he thought, and his stomach quivered at the thought. But no, Kurt was quite sure it was true, that he did love Blaine. Of course, he had never been in love before, not even close, but he was pretty sure this was how it felt. He'd never known any feeling but this one with Blaine, or with anyone but Blaine. That was love, right? This quivery, shaky, going-too-fast-but-not-wanting-to-stop-hold-on-to-me-before-I-float-away feeling...was this love? The way their hands fit so perfectly together, the way they always understood each other, even without speaking? The way he sometimes caught Blaine looking at him the same way Burt looked at Carole, and the same way he was sure he looked at Blaine? Was that love?
But now was not the moment to say it, and it wouldn't be the right moment, not until he was sure Blaine felt the same way.
"...Kurt?" Blaine said, and Kurt shook himself.
"What?"
"I asked what you wanted to do now?" Blaine said, staring at Kurt in an odd way. "Are you okay?"
"Yes!" Kurt nodded. "Just...just cold."
Blaine half-smiled. "I'm sorry I got mad. And I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in there."
"No, really..." Kurt said, smiling at him. "I'm sort of glad you did it."
Blaine grinned. "I'm glad I did too."
They ended up going back to Kurt's house, where Kurt made them hot chocolate. They lay on the sofa, their heads at opposite ends, with some cheesy Disney movie playing on the TV in front of them.
"Does this tickle?" Blaine said, stroking the bottom of Kurt's foot and making him squirm.
"Yes!" Kurt squealed, trying to pull his foot away, but Blaine grabbed his ankle and held it.
"Blaine, stop!" he gasped between laughs.
"Who's gonna make me?" Blaine said, leaping across the couch to tickle Kurt's ribs.
"Blaine, Blaine!" Kurt pleaded, trying to squirm away, but Blaine was straddling him, holding him down. "This isn't fair!"
"Life's not fair," Blaine growled in his ear, and turned his face to kiss him.
Kurt was just getting into it when something vibrated between them.
"Damn," Blaine said, sitting up but not getting off of Kurt. He checked his phone's display, and his face fell.
"What is it?" Kurt said, propping himself up on an elbow and still breathing unevenly from laughing so hard.
Blaine swung his legs off of Kurt and passed him the phone. The display read:
DAD: You need to come by and get the rest of your stuff.
"Oh, Blaine," Kurt said, shifting closer and putting an arm around his shoulders.
"I guess we'd better do it," Blaine said tonelessly, standing up from the couch. Kurt let his arm fall.
"I...I'll go ask my Dad to borrow the truck," Kurt said, and left the room.
He walked outside to see Blaine leaning against the truck, hands deep in the pockets of the pea coat that was wrapped tightly around him. He stared at the ground, and the sight-and accompanying thoughts-filled Kurt with a mixture of rage and sympathy.
They didn't speak at all on the way to Blaine's house. Blaine just stared out the window, and Kurt focused on keeping control of the vehicle on the snowy road.
When they finally pulled up to Blaine's house, they saw a pile of stuff on the doorstep. Kurt's heart sank, and his eyes flew to Blaine's face, checking for a reaction. Blaine's eyes widened a little, but he let nothing else show.
They got out of the car together and stood side-by-side, facing the mound of stuff. Some clothes were piled unceremoniously on the stoop, some toiletries, odds and ends, and on the very top, a stack of mail.
Blaine bent down to try to pick up the bulk of the load, and knocked the mail to the ground.
"I'll get it," Kurt said, bending to retrieve the mail and the other things Blaine had dropped in his haste.
As Blaine was dumping his stuff in the bed of the truck, Kurt flipped through the letters. A few ads from colleges, something from Dalton, and...what?
The final letter appeared to be a bill of some sort, the little window in the corner showing it addressed to Blaine's parents, and the return address reading...
Lima County Center for Oncology.
"Blaine?" Kurt said, not liking the panicky tone his voice had taken on, but he was unable to stop it. "Blaine!" he called sharply, his voice cutting the cold, thin air like a knife.
Blaine lifted his head from the bed of the truck, which he had been struggling to cover with the tarp. "What are you looking at?" he said, frowning as he walked over. He gently pulled the letters from Kurt's grasp, his eyes searching the envelope as if begging for a response. He sighed heavily, and dropped his head in his hands, letting the mail fall to the ground once more.
Kurt said nothing as he wrapped his arms around Blaine, and they stood there in the middle of Blaine's frozen yard, their shared tears freezing in to tracks on their cheeks.
Somehow, they ended up at the park. They were the only ones there, so they claimed the best swings, the two in the middle, and snaked their arms around the chains and spun in circles, neither of them speaking.
"So..." Kurt said, dragging his toe in the dirt.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Blaine said quietly. "I just...didn't know how. But I was going to...eventually."
Kurt didn't know what to say, so he just nodded and tried to swallow the huge lump in his throat. "Are you...what's going to...what..." His words were coming out wrong, jumbled, so he just fell silent again.
"There's a tumor in my liver," Blaine said simply. He wound the swing up and let it go; he went ricocheting around like a top.
"Oh."
"Kurt?"
"Yeah Blaine?"
"Will you hold my hand?"
Kurt looked up at him, swallowing thickly again and trying to hold back his tears. "Yeah."
Blaine stopped spinning and pulled his hand from his pocket, and Kurt took it almost immediately. They sat still, saying nothing, just enjoying the feeling of having one another's hand in theirs.