Summary of this chapter? Pretty much my boy done got kissed. I'm not telling which of my boys, though. You're just going to have to read. A review. And not sue me for an references, 'cause they're sooooo not mine. Ever.
9 – Mess
It was about three in the morning when everyone settled in. But Jeremy was still staring at the ceiling of his room, thinking to himself. And, of course, nothing got passed his brother. "What up, 'Remy?" he asked quietly.
"He flirts with the other guys, he plays those stupid games with them, but he always runs from me," Jeremy replied.
Oliver looked over at Pavel, because he knew his little brother was talking about the childlike boy. "He likes you. He plays those games because he knows he's got nothing to lose. With you…" he looked back at his brother, "It's different."
Oliver knew Jeremy. He was fun-loving and mischievous when the two were in public, but in private, Jeremy was always worrying. Oliver had always been the big brother.
Jeremy shook his head, "Tease," he muttered, and rolled over.
Kurt woke to a certain shuffling from behind him. He wondered if Arthur was still awake, since he usually slept during the day, and was out at night. Opening his pretty eyes, moving so that he was sitting up. He looked over at the form next to him, and saw that Blaine was there instead of Arthur: his eyes were solid brown.
"Guess Arthur got sick of reading," Blaine whispered, minding Oliver and Jeremy, who were sleeping like logs and wouldn't get up for a while, and Pavel, who was murmuring something in his sleep, but still out cold. "Didn't mean to wake you. Guess you're a light sleeper?"
"That or I'm right here," Kurt said, motioning Blaine's arms around his waist.
They both blushed slightly, but Blaine didn't take his arms from around the other's waist.
"Will Arthur just go to sleep?" Kurt asked, pointing to the fob watch.
"No. He'll listen to the incessant ticking of the watch or to us, whichever's loudest," Blaine replied, running his thumb over the watch.
"You should be nicer to him," Kurt suddenly said. "I mean… we watched the entirety of Merlin last night, so it might be that dynamic that you want, and I know Arthur loves to banter with you… I just think… since you live so close to each other, that you should be civil to him… since he kind of is to you…"
Blaine looked away from him for a moment before he shook his head, "I respect him. I've got to, he's my other half. It's just… it's still kind of freaky to open up this watch and here my own voice talking to me, but… but it's a completely different person from me. I literally black out and go into a watch when he takes over. But I do. I like him enough. He was there for me when I had to transfer here. So yeah…"
"Love you too man," said Arthur. Blaine looked down and saw that Kurt had opened the watch.
"You didn't hear that," Blaine replied quickly, glaring.
"No, I definitely heard that," Arthur replied, grinning cheekily. "He likes me, Kurtie, he really likes me…"
"Oh god… I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I," Blaine asked, a rhetorical question.
"Sorry…" Kurt replied, getting sheepish.
"No need to apologize, Kurt," Arthur replied, smiling at him. "I always knew he secretly respected me."
"Aw… coming from the man who wants to sing 'Believe In Yourself' to me for the whole 'get along with each other' thing," Blaine replied, pointing to the watch. To anyone watching, Blaine might have looked a bit crazy, arguing with a watch…
"You heard that?" Arthur asked.
"I heard that. I was up until the end of the first episode of Merlin, just about," Blaine replied, "By the way, we're auditioning that version of 'If I Had You."
Kurt sighed, "I see what you meant by you two being Arthur and Merlin, Arthur," he said, grinning at the watch.
Arthur grinned back from within. "Except now we're making progress…"
"Merlin and Arthur made progress! Back in Season One! We're like, in Season six or something…" Blaine replied.
"I say a season in our life is about two years, so we're in season 8, at least," Arthur replied.
"Well, there you go," Blaine replied. He glanced at Kurt, who was smiling and trying not to laugh at them. "Are we boring you?"
"Don't mind me. I'm actually getting more entertainment out of this then I ever did back in New Directions…" Kurt replied. "And I think you can start your life season over again from the beginning, if you wish. Unless your happy with getting to the eighth season."
"He's mocking us. Quick, defend your honor. And if I catch you using magic I will force feed you that rat stew…" Arthur said, the grin audible in his voice.
Kurt put his hands up in a defensive mode, "I'll do anything to get you two to stop being mean and glarey to each other… so go ahead, make me the bad guy!"
Blaine put his hands on Kurt's and the gravity of both his and Kurt's made the other's hands come down back into his lap. Blaine didn't remove his hands, though. "Glarey?"
"It's legit," Kurt replied, putting his nose up slightly.
"Whatever man. Blaine. I love you. Now can we hug and kiss now?" Arthur asked.
Blaine's eyes widened, but he gave the watch a cheeky grin, "Are you sure you didn't say drug and kill?"
"Haha. Darren Criss of Starkid Potter called: He wants their joke back."
Kurt laughed out loud, shaking his head at the two, "I think you two are at least friends now… Just don't get those sad eyes if Arthur kills a unicorn," Kurt replied, putting his hand over his mouth.
"Blaine is the young, virginal maiden compared to me…" Arthur replied haughtily.
"That's enough from you," Blaine replied, closing the lid of the watch with a sharp 'click.' Arthur hissed violently from within, but kept his mouth shut.
Blaine was smiling, and Kurt's eyebrows popped up. "You enjoyed that."
"Shut up. He'll hear me," Blaine replied.
"You're such a tease," Jeremy said as Pavel picked up his bag. He and Kurt were getting packed to go back to their room so they could shower properly. Then Pavel was going to make the entire dormitory pancakes… and the twins were going to advertise.
"Uhm… all right?" Pavel asked, flushing lightly.
Kurt's eyebrow shot up, and he looked to Oliver, who shrugged and flipped the page in a magazine he was reading. Blaine had all ready taken off to his room, Kurt and him having given each other lingering touches before Blaine snapped to attention and left. He said he'd probably see them at the brunch party later.
"Probably off to continue his bromance with Arthur," Kurt replied, chuckling as he neatly folded his blanket and tucked it away. "I hope Arthur gets some sleep today…"
"Falling for him, huh?" Oliver asked.
Kurt blushed, "I'm not—I mean… I don't know."
"'S all right," Oliver replied, poking his side a little. "Take your time in figuring things out."
The two left, Jeremy making yet another odd quip about Pavel's made up sexual appetite. Pavel's eyebrow's furrowed as he looked over his shoulder at the cat-eyed twin, but shook his head and walked straight into the door of Kurt and Pavel's shared room.
"—And they're in a teasing voice!" Pavel said, as he flipped a pancake. In order for Pavel to have a safe experience, Kurt had insisted he wear a long-sleeved shirt, oven mitts (at all times) and an apron. Pavel obliged, having been burned many times the last time the twins had made him cook.
The other boys were all ready wolfing down Pavel's signature pancakes. It was the first American food he had ever made, but they were still delicious. He muttered something in Russian to the sugar canister and it poured in the right amount of sugar into the pancakes as they were baking.
Pavel had been the one to tell Kurt that if his spells didn't work in English, that he could try another language. Since Russian was his first language (the accent told him so), Pavel said most of his spells in Russian, with their Spells teacher flipping through the Russian to English dictionary during Oral Exams.
Kurt had decided, after bombing several pop Oral Quizzes in Spells class, to try his incantations in French. His spells worked wonderfully after that. French was like second nature to him, so that must've been the link. (Just like the twins speaking gibberish when they did their most mischievous spells.)
"Kurt, are you even listening to me?" Pavel asked as he put the finished pancake on the plate just to have it snatched up by another hungry boy. He adjusted the cute apron Jeremy had provided him (It made him look a bit like a boy version of Alice from Alice in Wonderland—he was even wearing a baby blue sweater and khaki pants) and got to work on another pancake.
"Kind of?" Kurt asked, lifting his head from his elbow, which lay on the counter next to the pancake batter bowl.
"Oh good… I can really get some advice from 'Kind of,'" Pavel replied, rolling his beautiful sky blue eyes upwards.
"You said something about the names Jeremy has been calling you—"
Cue the pervier twin coming up behind Pavel, putting his hands on the smaller boy's shoulders, giving them a squeeze and whispering—quite loudly, actually, "Pass me the extra thing of sugar, you little flirt."
Kurt raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow as Pavel reached up to the cupboard above him, opened it, and handed Jeremy the extra sugar shaker. Jeremy patted Pavel lightly on the upper arm and was away once more, taking his spot in between Colin and Oliver.
"—Right… I see why that would bother you. I pretty sure that just started this morning…" Kurt replied.
Pavel groaned, "You going to eat?" he asked, pointing to Kurt's empty, clean plate. Kurt sighed and snagged the pancake Pavel had finished before another boy took it. He started eating it without syrup, and he stuck his tongue out at his roommate, food still in his mouth. Pavel laughed, "You're so grown up, Kurtie," he said, and put the last of the pancakes on his own plate, moving himself to a table where Blaine, the twins, Colin and Victor sat. Kurt followed him, still eating the pancake with his hands.
Once everyone had had their fill and the kitchenette area was all clean (Pavel made the twins clean it), Colin decided it was time for Spin the Bottle. Since it was an all boy's school, most boys who were uncomfortable sat out. Oliver, and five other straight boys were the only straights playing, as it were.
"Today we welcome a new straight boy, Jackson, to the ranks of the open-minded," Oliver said, placing the syrup bottle in the middle of the table, "Kurt? Do the honors of spinning first?"
"Such a gentlemen," Kurt replied.
Kurt wasn't sure why he played gay chicken and Spin the Bottle with the boys. Pavel had told him they were just games. Games that made this residence hall one of the most intimate (not in anyway but friendship, mind you) on campus. So Kurt actually now had experience with kissing boys, and he knew Blaine and Pavel did as well. The boys all made an effort to play the games anytime there was a big gathering like this one. It made them less squeamish with each other, especially the boys in the drama club, who were always putting on romantic plays a la Shakespeare, late 1500s (guys playing girls and kissing other guys and all that).
Kurt watched as the bottle spun around and around. Sometimes Colin called rules, like you could only kiss on the mouth for two or three rounds. Most of the time, Colin allowed for cheek kissing, unless Pavel was spinning the bottle. Colin liked messing with Pavel, despite the no bullying rule at Dalton. It wasn't bullying if Pavel clearly enjoyed the attention he received. Is that why Jeremy is suddenly calling Pasha those names? Kurt asked as the bottle slowed, passing Blaine, then Colin… and then landing neatly on Pavel.
He had only ever kissed Pavel on the cheek, since it was Pavel, after all. But Colin was obviously awake, and he shouted, "House rules! Mouth kissing only! No other kissing allowed, unless Victor appeals a neck kissing rule later," he purred, looking over at his part-time shag (they totally were).
Pavel blanched. Kissing your best friend was a bit… weird. And Pavel liked Jeremy, and Kurt liked Blaine (and probably Arthur. Probably). Pavel shrugged and clambered into Kurt's lap to get closer to him. "It's only a game, Kurt," he said, touching noses with the other carefully before pressing his lips on Kurt's, feeling the other boy press back slightly. Both boys felt the others' eyes on them, and as they parted, Pavel moving back to his spot to spin the bottle.
Jeremy, rolling his eyes from his end of the circle, muttered, "Bloody harlot."
Pavel paused, looking up at Jeremy. He pulled his hand away from the bottle, biting his lower lip as he glanced across him at Jeremy. Then he stood up suddenly and stormed out.
"He's worse than Rachel," Kurt said, and got up to follow him, flashing furrowed eyebrows at Jeremy, then Oliver. "Deal with you brother?" his look seem to say to the older twin.
He didn't find Pavel in his room, but didn't worry about it. Much. Kurt knew Pavel liked Jeremy, and now Jeremy was acting strangely (Jealously, in Kurt's opinion), and Pavel didn't know how to interpret it. Pavel was probably in the bathroom, or maybe he was hiding in the broom closet. Just in case, though, Kurt texted his roommate, then checked the other's sock drawer. No Pavel, sleeping his sadness away in his sock drawer with a giant Hershey's bar.
He checked his phone, but there was no answer just yet. Kurt silently locked the door and looked over his planner. He might as well get some stuff done as he ignored the rest of the world for a minute, waiting up for his roommate.
He took out a deck of Tarot cards. He had to practice his spells, do some star charts for Astronomy, write some poetry for English… he had a lot of homework to do, actually. Regionals were in a week. But Arthur and Blaine were repairing a broken relationship, all thanks to him. He smiled about that as he absentmindedly shuffled the Tarot cards. He had to practice with them this weekend, and he was really looking forward to doing a couple readings for Rachel and some other Lima residents when he was down there…
But then all thoughts turned right to Blaine. His look when Pavel and him had kissed… it was normal for the guys to all be kissing each other. It was a game to everyone, including Kurt and Blaine. It made this residence hall the tightest group on campus. They were all friends, and they could all trust each other. Blaine hadn't even flinched when Pavel had kissed him. There was only worry in his face when Jeremy had called Pavel an ugly word (not even teasing this time) and he had stormed out.
Over Christmas Kurt had told Mercedes he had loved Blaine. Then Kurt had met Arthur, and Kurt wasn't so sure about the arrangement. Did he love Arthur too? He did… he must have. Blaine and Arthur were two sides of the same coin: literally. They were two halves of the same whole. And Kurt loved them both.
But they had just come to terms with each other. Kurt couldn't ruin their budding friendship but butting in and telling them both he loved them. It was too soon. Kurt glanced at the cards in his hand. "What do you think?" he asked, shuffling them again for extra measure, and taking out the book that was required for the Tarot portion of the Divination class. He decided to do the layout he was most familiar with from class:
He put out three cards face down, and then placed them face up, one at a time.
He flipped through the book, still a novice at this type of mystical art. "Hmm… Past: Eight of Pentacles. Eight of… there you are. 'New skills, new opportunities,'" he stared at the card for a while, studying the card. "Prensent: The Lovers. What? The Lovers… The Lovers… The Lovers: an emotional decision. Oh," Kurt laughed, shaking his head. "Future. Ah, there you are. What should I do what should I… The High Priestess? Hmmmm… there you are, you beautiful woman," Kurt stared at the book. "Unknown future? What?"
He tried again.
And again.
And he did not stop trying.
"Hi, Kurt…" Pavel said, the locked door unlocked and opened… and then closed.
Kurt looked up from his frustrating Tarot reading. "I keep getting the High Preistess as my future. That's an unknown future. God! I just want to tell Arthur and Blaine that I love them, but if I do, I'll ruin their budding bromance and I'll feel so guilty for them throwing away their whole like together!"
Pavel blinked. But he threw his keys on his bed (hitting the wall and creating yet another dent in it. By accident, as usual), and joined Kurt at his desk, sitting on the arm of the chair and putting his arms around the other boy, despite all that had happened to the Russian that very morning. He slid in to the other boy's body heat, his butt now sharing the chair with the other, while his feet still dangled over the arm of the chair.
"That's a lot to think about…" Pavel said. "Are the mean Tarot cards giving you a hard time?"
"The High Preistess," Kurt said, holding up the card and glaring at it.
"If it's an unknown future… then you've got some choice about it. I mean, with Tarot cards you always have a choice. But you have more choice when you don't know your future…" Pavel said, putting the other boy's head to his chest, even though Kurt was taller than him by a few if not five or six inches.
Kurt thought about this, "I'm still going to be angsting about it. I want Arthur and Blaine to spend more time talking to each other and stuff. I mean, I made them come to terms with each other!" he said. Then he actually thought about, "Or, I at least helped."
Pavel said nothing, and they sat for a moment. "How about you? What are you going to do about Jeremy?"
"I can't even look at him. I saw him in his room right as was unlocking the door and…" Kurt heard him sigh quite loudly.
"Poor Pasha…" Kurt said, shifting so that he had his arms around the smaller boy's waist. "I would give you a Tarot reading, but I'm afraid you might turn up with 'unknown future' too…"
"More than likely I'll just get temptation or chains," Pavel replied.
"Maybe you'll get the two of cups. Or the page of cups…" Kurt replied daringly.
"No messages of love for this poor page," Pavel replied.
"We are messes," Kurt replied after a few moments of staring at Kurt's wall.
"Tell me about it," Pavel replied, closing his eyes lightly against his friend.
Coming Up Next: Jeremy continues to be a prat, Arthur and Blaine continue to banter (as friends now), and Kurt continues to smile and pretend like he's not hurting. Until he's sent to the headmistress for blanking out in his Astronomy class... and then a few more secrets are finally unraveled...
