Title: Closed Off (4/?)
Author: foreternityblue
Pairing: Blaine/Kurt
Rating: PG-13 (rating will go up, most likely)
Chapter Word Count: 3, 300
Summary: Ever since his mother's death, Kurt Hummel hasn't been able to sleep at night and shut the rest of the world out, just trying to forget everything. Yet, when a mysterious boy with hazel eyes moves into town everything becomes harder to avoid. Klaine AU

Author's Note: Most of you guys figured it out last chapter, but the whole "When snow melts, what does it turn into?" is a reference to Fruits Basket. Alright, chapter four.

The dream was simple… it was nice, actually, in a really weird way.

It was from his own point of view, so he wasn't looking upon the scene. Actually, he had just been lying there in a field of snow as the flakes of frozen water fell all around and on him, eventually covering him in a blanket of snow. He hadn't been cold, though, at all. He had actually felt pleasantly warm… safe, almost, lying in the soft snow for what felt like hours but only seconds at the same time. Somehow that made sense in Kurt's mind.

It kind of felt like he was lying in a field of cotton, not of snow. Near the end of the dream, the flat grayness of the sky started to ebb away as the snow started to melt slowly. He was about to sit up and look around once the sky became a bright, beautiful shade of blue, but to no avail. He woke up just as he lifted his head from the ground.

When he woke up and rolled over to check the time, it was well past dinnertime. Actually, it was around the time that Kurt would retire to his room and tell his family goodnight (in other words, around ten 'o clock). He slid out of his bed, stretching a little bit and groaning at the slight discomfort he felt, moving as swiftly as possible to change out of the outfit he had worn to school.

By the time he had dragged himself up to his room earlier that day, Kurt was basically half asleep. He could have sworn that he had changed before crawling into bed, but he had apparently been wrong and remembered it incorrectly. Then again, that wasn't exactly surprising. So he switched his skinny jeans out for silk pajama bottoms, and his sweater and t-shirt for one of his silk button-up tops that matched the pants.

Sighing softly to himself, he pulled his backpack onto the bed and opened it, pulling out his homework carefully so that he could start on it, since he was already rather behind on his usual schedule. He didn't really feel hungry, so he figured that he'd just wander downstairs later on when he actually was hungry enough that he wanted to eat something. Passively, he worked on his English homework, reading the book assigned to his class and annotating it carefully.

He could hear footsteps coming down the hall around eleven, and Kurt paid it no mind until the door to his room opened slowly. Then, and only then, he looked up from the book open in his lap and glanced over to see Carole standing there, smiling at him softly and holding a plate of food. His stomach growled suddenly and he glanced down, wondering how he missed the build-up of hunger in his stomach, before closing his book promptly, gesturing for his stepmother to walk over to his bed.

"You were asleep when I came up to get you and Finn for dinner," Carole explained, even though Kurt was already extremely aware of that fact. "I didn't want to wake you, so I kept your dinner warm and everything," she sat down on the edge of the bed and handed Kurt the plate that had a large portion of spaghetti on it. Carole gazed over at him for a few moments, and the brunet was acutely aware of the worry that was in her eyes, "… Kurt, are you okay?"

Kurt nodded automatically, "Yeah, I'm okay. Don't worry about me, Carole; I just needed some sleep this afternoon. I'll probably go back to sleep soon, I only need to annotate one more chapter." The lie came easily, effortlessly. It probably should have affected him in some way, telling a lie so easily, but it really didn't. He wasn't entirely sure why, but it didn't.

His stepmother lingered, and Kurt was fairly certain that she was about to ask something else… but she changed her mind, nodding and smiling at him rather weakly, reaching over to give him a brief, but warm, hug. The hug was lovely, and in a way he didn't want to pull away because it felt safe… but he only returned the hug briefly before pulling away and smiling at her a little bit, just to make it seem like he was really okay. She nodded once more, and stood up, told him goodbye, and left his room, closing the door gently behind her.

He ate rather quickly, and set the mostly empty plate on the floor next to his bed when he was done, before picking up the book again and continuing to annotate the pages. Well, he hadn't completely lied to Carole, since he really only had to annotate one more chapter, but there was still all of his other homework that he had to get finished, sadly, and he didn't finish everything until around one in the morning, when everyone else in the house was fast asleep and he was left with nothing else to do.

Well, other than ponder his thoughts, anyways. Mainly he thought about the dream that he had, since that had been rather odd and… out of the blue, really. Kurt didn't dream, not really. The last dream he had was way back… well, when he was eight, if he was remembering correctly. Yet, the first dream is had in eight years was about snow of all things.

The first dream that Kurt Hummel had since he was a child was, apparently, caused by some guy that he barely knew. The thought annoyed the brunet enough to just crawl under his covers and basically glare at his ceiling until it was about five in the morning and he fell into another one of his dreamless sleeps.

—

A week later, Kurt hadn't figured out much more about Blaine, though they had many different conversations about basically nothing. Once they debated who was better: Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. Another time they had conversed about different issues of Vogue, though they hadn't had a "deep" conversation since the snow incident.

Kurt still hadn't figured out the question.

After a rather long day that included a stressful pre-calculus test and a physics test, Kurt spent most of the afternoon sleeping before eating dinner as he normally did, then just sitting with his family watching TV. He wasn't ignoring his homework, not really, since it couldn't be considered ignoring if he was pretty much ahead compared to normal student standards since he was constantly checking over his homework at night as a way to pass the time.

He went up to his room at the same time that his father did, meaning around midnight, and hugged Burt goodnight for the first time in a while, simply because he wanted to. Plus, it had felt like they had been distant lately… it was kind of a way for Kurt to remind his father that he loved him no matter what.

When he walked into his room, his changed out of his clothes and grabbed a random book from his bookshelf to read through the night. Yet, when he finally got himself settled and opened the book to the first page, he found it hard to concentrate on reading. There were too many thoughts in his mind, and it was hard to clear everything out in order to properly submerse himself in the book and let time pass unwatched.

It was only 2:46 when he next checked the clock that was always on his bedside table, and he resisted the urge to scream in frustration, though only because doing so would wake up everyone else in the house. Time was passing too slowly and there were too many thoughts that threatened to drown Kurt if he didn't do something about them soon. If only it were possible for him to literally wash out his thoughts.

Before he really knew what he was doing, he was changing from his pajamas into the skinny jeans that he had worn to school earlier, and a black turtleneck. He glanced at his reflection in the mirror and wrinkled his nose at how 'depressed poet' he looked, but turned away from the glass quickly and pulled on his boots, zipping them up. Kurt hurried down the stairs as quickly, but as quietly, as possible, and he grabbed his gloves, pulling them on, quickly followed by his scarf and then his jacket.

He eased open the door and slid outside, and had the strong urge to go back inside when he was barely even out the door, it was just… cold. Still, he closed the door behind him for some reason and started down the front walk, hurrying along and not paying much attention to where he was walking. When he reached the sidewalk, Kurt stopped abruptly and stared down at the pavement, and then up and down the road, his eyebrows creasing a little bit.

It appeared like it snowed again while he was asleep… and it had recently stopped snowing, if the new, mainly untouched blanket of snow was anything to go by at all. Kurt blinked a few times and ended up just standing there in the cold, staring at the snow, his gaze rather intense as he tried to figure something out… it took him a few moments to finally realize that he was thinking about the question Blaine asked him earlier.

His brain felt stretched, because, apparently, one part of his brain was far ahead of the other. It was a weird feeling, and it gave him a headache, and with a sigh, Kurt turned and started down the sidewalk, leaving footprints behind as he walked, the crunching of his snow sounding almost too loud to his mind. Far, far too loud.

After about five minutes of walking, something occurred to Kurt out of practically nowhere, and he came to an abrupt stop on the sidewalk, glancing around to figure out where, exactly, he was. He was close to the park, he soon realized, and he walked to the edge of the sidewalk that was adjacent to someone's yard, and he bent down, leaning over and brushing the multiple inches of snow to the side.

He could feel his fingers grow colder, become numb, as he drug through the snow carefully, and when he reached the bottom he found himself staring at grass. Just grass. He gasped a little bit, covering his mouth with his wet, numb, and very cold hand as a realization dawned upon him.

"What does water become…?" he muttered, swallowing thickly before trying to brush the snow back into place. "Water becomes… it becomes…" he stood up, wondering why he hadn't realized it sooner. The answer was so simple… and, yet, at the same time, it wasn't that simple. It wasn't as simple as saying 'When snow melts it becomes water,' because such an answer needed thought.

Kurt spun on his heels, continuing down the sidewalk quickly and turning into the park, his mind racing. It took him a few moments to realize that he wasn't alone in the park, and he stopped walking again, his feet sinking into the snow a little bit as he stared over at the swings. Someone was sitting there, on the swing next to the one Kurt always sat at, and when he realized just who it was he started walking again, faster this time, right up to the swings.

Blaine seemed to be distracted by something, until Kurt grew closer and his footsteps louder, causing the other teenager to blink and then gaze over at him, a look of shock and confusion crossing his face briefly as he stopped the swing from its back and forth motion, opening his mouth to say something when Kurt stopped about a foot in front of him. He didn't get the chance to utter a single syllable, though, before Kurt spoke on his own.

"It becomes spring."

The confusion in Blaine's hazel eyes overpowered the shock and he tilted his head to the side a little bit, "What—oh," he seemed to realize what Kurt was talking about barely a moment later, and a gentle smile pulled at his lips as the confusion was replaced by an expression that Kurt couldn't really make out. It didn't look like an impressed expression, not really, but more like a… knowing expression. "I knew you could figure it out," he said, nodding a little bit and continuing to smile, "When snow melts, it becomes spring."

Kurt sighed and moved to sit down in the familiar swing, pushing himself back and forth absentmindedly as he glanced over a Blaine, who seemed to be staring at the sky. Well, until he lowered his gaze and turned to look at Kurt in return after a solid minute or so of just staring. "Where did you even come up with such a ridiculous question? And what are you doing outside at this time of night in this weather?"

Yes, the last question was fairly hypocritical to ask, but Kurt couldn't really help himself. He wasn't used to seeing anyone else outside at this time, and he was still struggling with the fact that Blaine Anderson was sitting on a swing next to him when he was somewhere around three in the morning.

Blaine stared over at Kurt, his expression rather blank before he smiled a little bit and turned his head back to the sky as he pushed himself back and forth on the swing again, keeping his feet mainly on the ground. There was an almost sad look in his hazel eyes, from what Kurt could see as he continued to stare over at him. "A person, a very kind, thoughtful person, asked me the same question a while ago. I was skeptical at first, but I got it eventually, just like you." His voice was so calm, and Kurt tilted his head to the side slightly, not looking away from Blaine even as he started to push himself back and forth a little bit, mainly absentmindedly.

"Though, as far as what I'm doing out here goes," Blaine continued after they sat there in silence for a few moments, finally pulling his gaze from the side, concentrating it on Kurt once again as their eyes locked together. "I could very well ask you the same thing," he retorted playfully, a soft laugh falling from his lips.

Kurt rolled his eyes at the apparently witty retort, and this time he looked away from the other teenager, though he turned his gaze to the ground instead. "Well, I asked you first, so you should still answer me," he responded, before shrugging his shoulders shallowly. "But I can't sleep, if you really want to know." It wasn't much of admittance, but it wasn't like he was telling Blaine that he couldn't sleep at night at all. He was only admitting just one miniscule night.

"Me neither," Blaine stated, and Kurt glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, seeing that the shorter teenager was staring in front of him, rather than up at the sky like he was before or down at the ground like Kurt. "Sleep, that is. I can't sleep," he cleared up, starting to laughing a little bit, "I'm sorry, I made that sound so much more complicated than it was meant to sound. I just can't sleep, so I came here, like you."

Kurt didn't know what came over him, but he was suddenly asking, "You couldn't sleep just tonight or in general?" He could feel Blaine's questioning, somewhat shocked stare, but he kept his gaze trained onto the ground as he pushed himself back and forth gently. Actually, he wasn't sure what had been coming over him for the entirety of the night, since everything just felt… unbelievable, in a way.

There were a few moments of silence, which caused Kurt to wonder if Blaine was just going to ignore the question. "In general," Blaine finally said, his voice steady and even, causing Kurt to slowly peer over at him again, only to find his hazel eyes staring over at him with an intense gaze. "What about you?" Kurt's face hardened a little bit at the question and he glanced down at the ground again, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to. It's just a question."

For a moment, Kurt eyebrows rose slightly in shock, before he turned away from Blaine completely and started pushing himself back and forth more. "You're not like everyone else in this town."

"Oh? How so, Kurt?"

"Well…" Kurt took a deep breath, "you're polite, almost abnormally polite… and really, really nice. You seem attentive, and you're actually genuinely interested in getting to know me, from what I can tell. You, apparently, take other peoples' feelings into consideration… you're so positive sometimes that I can't really tell if it's sickening or just endearing to an extent."

Blaine stared over at Kurt for a little while longer, his expression rather blank from what Kurt could see out of the corner of his eye, before he started smiling just slightly and laughed softly, "I take pride in being different, mind you. And, you're not exactly like everyone else either, Kurt."

Suddenly, Blaine was standing up and Kurt tilted his head up, opening his mouth to ask him what he meant, again, because he was just so… mysterious, but in a really odd way. However, before Kurt could utter the first syllable of what, Blaine was standing in front of him, gripping onto the chains that held the swing up just above there Kurt's hands were, and he was leaning down. How fast his heart was racing in his chest and how much it pounded concerned Kurt a little bit—he actually wondered if Blaine could hear his heartbeat, or if he could break his ribcage with how much his heart was pounding. Kurt felt him brushing his lips gently across his forehead, causing Kurt to both flush and blink multiple times in confusion. His mind was in sudden overdrive, like his heart definitely was. "Wait—"

"You should probably leave soon," Blaine said, his voice clear as he let go of the chains and straightened up, gazing down at Kurt with an almost concerned expression. "Your forehead is freezing and I think that you're getting frost on your eyelashes. You've been out here a little too long." He started walking backwards before the brunet could say anything, "I'll see you in school, Kurt."

Honestly, Kurt wanted to shout after him. He wasn't sure what he wanted to shout, but he wanted to say something… but Blaine was gone before he could even process the thought properly, turning around and walking out of the park, taking a right and disappearing behind the trees and bushes that lined the sidewalk. Kurt sat there for a little while longer, the swing going in a slight back and forth motion as his mind tried to process what just happened.

For a few moments he wondered, stupidly, if he was dreaming and if this all was just some insane thing his subconscious made up. Finally, he stood up from the swing and took a few deep breaths before following the footsteps that he had laid down for himself when he was walking into the park.

His mind was absolutely swamped with thoughts and questions and wonderings… why was Blaine so odd? Why did he have the mannerisms that he had? Just as Kurt stepped out of the park, a mental image of his mother flashed in front of his eyes and he shook his head quickly, getting rid of it as he pushed his hand into his winter coat's pockets.

Halfway home, it started snowing again.