If you don't care to read all my review feedback the story starts where the BOLD ends : )Thank you so much to all the lovely reviews guys! they mean so much
IchigoPudding - Thank you so much for all the reviews! :PI love that you've reviewed every chapter and love even more that you seem to be enjoying it from all the 'aww!'s :D THANK YOU
imaginess - I'm glad you like it! About his singing in key, my head-cannon for this is that they (kurt, Rachel and him) spent hours perfecting his performance the night before and, as is a little bit explained in this chapter (ish) he and Rachel trained him to learn to feel sounds via his hand on his (or her) vocal chords. That way he could tell what each note should have sounded like and by learning how it should feel he could perform it sorta accurately. I wouldn't say his performance was perfect, off notes here and there but it wouldn't have been as bad as Sugar Motta's Big Spender from S3's Purple Piano Project.
tragicwhisper - THANK YOU :D I'm hopeing this chapter will also be as cute - if not cuter!- than the last so prepare for fluffy cutesy Kurt + Blaine + Sleepovers!
rainbowdork - please tell me you are the same rainbowdork from Tumblr, right? either way, Thank yoouuu for the reviewwwsss. I'm not really sure about Karofsky, I might mention what happened (I could give K+B another little honest moment when kurt fesses up to what happened to him? mebeh?)
Jesssy - I'm glad you found my story then! Yeah, the super Klainey moments are turning up now (I can't help them okay, they're just gonna have to get together soon else all their moments are gonna go to waste or something :P) I'm glad you like Rachel too! I usually hate Rachel because she's usually annoying, controlling or rarely featured and I decided if I couldn't write a Rach I didn't like what was the point in my making her Blaine's sister. Also B's hearing - I don't plan on giving it back to him immediately or suddenly, but I do plan on something about it which will happen at his appointment that was mentioned. I do have a credible idea for it though so I hope you like that and it doesnt ruin it for you.
ImJustDefyingGravityx3 - Me too! Gah Darren's so preettyyy and even with all the gel he still looks hot, and for this story I picture Blaine as having no gel and Darren's crazy shaggy hair. I envy Kurt so much for that chapter alone :D
RainySunneryEnding - Don't worry, I bet I'm more of a child :D I love when stories give you happy butterflies when they're good stories and I'm super proud that you're clearly enjoying my story! gah!
And my ever faithful Charmedmich - I think I might let Rachel watch from a distance actually, she usually interferes too much and it annoys me so I might let her egg them on a little, but they can do it themselves ya know? :P
Chapter 9
Around half an hour after his departure up the stairs, Kurt spotted the figure of Blaine in the doorway of the living room. His hair now fell in more defined yet still tight ringlets, held that way due to the water from his shower. He wore a set of plaid pyjama pants that were worn and frayed at the bottom hem, along with a grey tee with some sort of printed logo on the front, the letters of which had long since faded and were barely readable now. Kurt had merely glanced up for a moment when he spotted the boy. He seemed to be confused, staring at the older boy and the two girls. After a moment though he seemed to relax with a smile, hands moving to sign -face mask, right?
Kurt gave a small smile and a nod before flicking his eyes back to Rachel as she turned her gaze to him, leaning forwards in her enthusiasm in... whatever it was she was now talking about. Okay, so I've forgotten. So shoot me Kurt thought as he sent her an encouraging smile to pretend he was still paying her attention. Mercedes came to his rescue commenting about how she totally understood and Rachel turned back to her.
When Kurt glanced up again in Blaine's direction he was a lot closer, creeping silently towards Rachel from behind. Blaine locked eyes with Kurt once more and held a finger to his lips, a devilish grin on his lips and a mischievous glint in his eye. Kurt let his head dip towards the ground as he held back his grin, schooling his face back to something like neutral before looking back at Blaine, a glint in his own eyes as he nodded in return. Blaine's grin widened as he snuck up on his sister.
With a final pounce Blaine climbed the back of the sofa in a swift jump to land beside Rachel where she had her back turned and quickly threw his hands over her eyes. She let out a shriek that sent both Kurt and Mercedes into fits of giggles as Rachel flailed under her brother's hands. She finally prised her face free of Blaine's grasp - Blaine, who was practically wetting his pants at her reaction he was laughing so hard - and scowled at him.
"Mean" she glared, signing at him.
"What? You act like you're totally innocent and I'm the big meanie." Blaine laughed as he bounced slightly on the sofa beside her getting more comfortable.
"Oh god what has she done?" Kurt asked, his expression incredulous as to what on earth Rachel might do.
"Oh, you know, jump on me to wake me up, hide my art things, sit on me. You know, the usual." Blaine shrugged.
"Oh like you never do anything to retaliate." Rachel waved away as she checked her facemask was still okay and hadn't smudged.
"See, you used the word 'retaliate', implying I didn't make the first move Rachie" Blaine smiled.
"He has a point there, Rach," Kurt smirked slightly. Rachel then directed her glare his way at that and he recoiled slightly.
"Fine. I'm getting food." She huffed, standing and walking off, pausing in front of the mirror on the fire mantelpiece to check her facemask wasn't smudged before finally reaching the kitchen.
"Wow, that went well," Blaine sighed, biting his lip and getting up to follow her. "Better get onto damage control,"
Kurt watched Blaine go with a sad look in his eyes that Mercedes didn't miss, biting his lip as Mercedes sent him a look.
"What?" he asked.
"I can see it you know. The way you look at him. It's like you want to just hug him and never let anything hurt him." She said gently, stretching her legs out into Rachel's vacated space.
"I..."
"Sam looks at Stevie and Stacey the same way," she elaborated, sending him a soft smile as she sank a little into the cushions.
"I just... I feel like he needs someone other than Rachel, you know? Someone who cares as much as she does, but isn't her. Because god knows how annoying she can get,"
"I don't know how he puts up with her sometimes. I guess he has to, but still. If I were him, I'd regularly lock myself in my room and escape her for a good hour or so. I'm not saying at all that I hate that girl, just that she has her tendencies like we all do, just hers stick out more."
"Yeah..." was all Kurt replied with, biting the corner of his lip.
"He'll be okay Kurt," Mercedes smiled softly at him.
"I know. I'll make sure of that," he said dismissively, as if it was stupid that he wouldn't. Mercedes's smile turned to a grin as Kurt realised what he might have accidentally implied but Rachel returned before he could backpedal and announced that they should get comfy and prepare to start on their first movie, whichever it would be from their large selection.
"Anyone else want a drink whilst I'm up?" Kurt asked, stretching his legs and wincing as they clicked loudly from being curled up for so long.
"Nah, I'm good," said Mercedes as she bit her straw absent-mindedly, sipping a little at her soda.
"Me too. I'm fine." Rachel waved away as she stood to shove in the next DVD in its player.
"Just me then. Hey Rach, what happened to Blaine? He disappeared on us," Kurt asked.
"Not sure. He said he was gonna let us watch our film in peace or something. I can't remember. He might be in the utility," she waved away as she fiddled with the disk drawer.
"Okay, helpful," Kurt said sarcastically as he headed for the kitchen, rolling his eyes at Rachel as he went. Kurt decided to find Blaine before grabbing his drink and so after noting he wasn't in the kitchen Kurt wandered through the room and into the hall, treading lightly up the stairs to see if Blaine was in his room. The door was open to Blaine's room but there was no Blaine in sight. Puzzled, Kurt kept looking.
Blaine wasn't in the basement 'playroom' (aka, the room Rachel used for performing on their mini stage complete with piano and Blaine used apparently for boxing due to the punch bag in the back corner), nor was he in the dining room or the study. Kurt was starting to think Blaine had vanished but then he remembered Rachel's odd comment about the utility and so headed through the kitchen to the door to the right of the pantry door. Kurt opened he utility room door slowly, but sure enough, there sat Blaine.
He had his eyes closed peacefully and almost looked asleep except for the fact he was tapping gentle rhythms against his crossed knees. He was leaning his head back against the running washing machine; it's whirring paired with the tumble drier beside it filling the room. Kurt smiled sadly and moved over to sit beside Blaine. Blaine, aware of his presence, picked up a hand and waved softly in greeting. Kurt felt like waving back but with Blaine's eyes closed it would be a redundant gesture. Instead, Kurt leant back against the churning tumble drier, letting his head rest back to feel the vibrations and his shoulder rest gently against Blaine's.
"Hey Kurt," Blaine said, a small smile in his voice. Kurt pulled his head back a little and narrowed his eyes, tilting his head as he tried to figure out how Blaine knew it was him. Blaine just laughed. "I'm guessing you're not Mercedes anyway. I know you're not Rachel because if Rachel finds me in here she always grabs my hand and leans her head on my shoulder. I'm not really sure how Mercedes would act. Maybe she'd go find Rach and ask if I was okay instead of coming in here to sit with me. I'm guessing."
Kurt let out a small laugh, more a soundless snort of breath out his nose in disbelief as he leant back into Blaine's shoulder. It felt like such a natural thing to do, to just sit with Blaine.
"Also Rachel's shoulder is at like... this height," Blaine smiled, lifting a hand to mark on his shoulder how much lower Rachel's would have been compared to Kurt's. Kurt giggled lightly at that and Blaine peeked open his left eye to glance up at Kurt. "Hi," Blaine smiled.
"Hello" Kurt mouthed. "You can lean your head on my shoulder if you want to. It's probably a better height than Rachel's,"
"Thank you," Blaine mouthed back with a smile and a gentle blush, leaning into Kurt's side and resting his head on Kurt shoulder that was at the perfect height.
-Odd place to sit, if you don't mind me asking. Kurt signed awkwardly, having to think hard to position his hands so Blaine could see them from the right view.
"What? You don't like it in here?" Blaine teased aloud this time, causing Kurt to shake gently with his laugh that he tried to keep silent.
-It's not my idea of the perfect place to sit. I'd get a numb ass after a while,
"Who taught you the swear words?"Blaine teased.
-My aunt. She taught me then when I was 14 but told me never to use them in public, only around her. She wanted us to have something silly that we could giggle about together. This was shortly after I told her I was almost sure I was gay. There was a school dance coming up and she asked me if I had my eye on a girl and I told her I didn't like any girls. I was scared but I told her I liked boys the way we're meant to like girls and she hugged me. She told me she was proud of me for telling her and that in return she'd let me know the naughty rude words so we could be 'adults' together because I was such a grown up for telling her. I think she just wanted to let me have somewhere to feel like I didn't need to hide. Like, somewhere where I didn't need to watch what I was saying, you know? So I didn't have to keep my mouth shut about a crush I might have because it would give away that I didn't like girls and I could also not have to worry about swearing in front of my dad, something I still won't do. I don't know if I'll ever have the courage to swear in front of him. Maybe when I'm a proper adult one day and he does about the football or something, then I'll swear as well about something that's annoying me. You can totally judge me for that as well because it's stupid and I know it.
"It's not stupid Kurt. It sounds like a lot of fun, having a relationship like that with your aunt. She sounds nice."
-She is. I don't get to see her much now though because she moved away to live closer to her kids in C-o-l-u-m-b-u-s. I should really learn place names in sign. That might help one day.
"One day," Blaine smiled.
-You never explained why you sit here Kurt signed, feeling like he was intruding asking this as it seemed like a personal thing.
"It's not comfy, I know. But I can feel here," Blaine explained. He sat up and uncurled his legs, stretching them out straight and slumping down the machine behind him slightly. "The vibrations. It's the closest thing I have to hearing. I mean, occasionally Rachel will sing for me. She'll let me rest my hand over her vocal chords so I can feel it. Or she'll play the piano that's in the basement and I'll lie on top of it to feel it beneath me. But here is easiest. It's mad, yes. But it's nice. I can't remember what the machine used to sound like, not really. Just that it whined a lot and annoyed Rachel and Dad. But I can tell it's making a noise and I can feel it too. It makes me remember sounds, in a way. Sometimes when I sit here my brain will play me the memory of a concert we went to when me and Rach were young, and the bass made me feel like my entire body was jumping to the beat. Or the time we went ice skating and crashed into each other and burst into giggles and couldn't stop laughing for ages so we just lay in a pile on the ice getting soaked but shaking with laughter because we didn't care. That's what I like about this place. It's my place."
-That sounds really deep. You should write these sorts of things down. Make a book of m-e-m-o-i-r-s or something. I never thought I'd need to sign that. Kurt signed, wondering absently what the sign for 'memoirs' really was.
"You're just saying that." Blaine blushed, shaking his head bashfully.
-Try me Kurt smiled. Blaine laughed and blushed further. -Actually, can I try something? Kurt asked suddenly, an idea popping into his head.
"Sure." Blaine shrugged. Kurt stood and held out a hand that Blaine took, a look of puzzlement in his eyes as he pulled himself upright.
-I want to sing for you. Kurt signed after Blaine had let go of his hand.
"You don't have to do that," Blaine said softly but Kurt shook his head.
-I want to. If you'll let me. He insisted. Blaine nodded gently, his eyes shining with emotion and Kurt could tell from that look alone that he was truly touched at Kurt's suggestion. Kurt held out a hand and Blaine took it gently, letting Kurt rest his hand gently over his lower neck where his vocal chords hid. Kurt kept his hand over Blaine's and linked their other free hands together too before starting the first song that came into his head.
"Weep for yourself, my man, you'll never be what is in your heart.
Weep little lion man, you're not as brave as you were at the start.
Rate yourself and rake yourself, take all the courage you have left.
Wasted on fixing all the problems that you made in your own head."
Kurt pulled Blaine in closer so that Blaine rested his head against Kurt's chest, Kurt letting his eyes drift shut as he continued singing.
"But it was not your fault but mine,
And it was your heart on the line,
I really fucked it up this time,
Didn't I, my dear? Didn't I, my dear?"
Kurt skipped the music section between verses in favour if diving straight into the next one. He decided he couldn't even try and hum the complicated string section that was classic Mumford and Sons style.
"Tremble for yourself, my man,
You know that you have seen this all before.
Tremble, little lion man,
You'll never settle any of your scores.
Your grace is wasted in your face,
Your boldness stands alone among the wreck
Now learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my dear?"
Kurt hummed a little through the harmonized section in the middle, swaying gently to the beat without realizing and pulling Blaine subconsciously closer, letting go of Blaine's hand to rest his palm on Blaine's back. Blaine felt like he was melting into Kurt's arms, his brain having a hard time in debating whether he should keep his eyes open to gaze up at Kurt forever or to close them and just enjoy being in Kurt's arms. In the end he settled for keeping them open and gazing up at the way the muscles of Kurt's neck moved under his fingers as his jaw formed the words he couldn't hear. Their bodies moved together in a secret slow dance, hips swaying slightly but hearts beating as one as Kurt reached the final chorus.
"But it was not your fault but mine,
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my dear...?"
Kurt kept his eyes closed for a moment longer as the song's final note disappeared into thin air before opening them once more to sneak a peek at Blaine. When he saw Blaine was gazing up with a look of awe and admiration he blushed and averted his gaze.
"You're good," Blaine whispered. Kurt blushed deeper and shook his head. "You are. Rach taught me about how to feel music. She wanted me to help her really, but she helped me learn to feel when she hit a crap note. You didn't hit any. You're good Kurt. I have no idea what that song was about, but it was good," Blaine smiled, lifting his head slightly from Kurt's chest.
"Too high," Kurt mouthed, shaking his head sadly and miming with his hand that had rested just below Blaine's shoulder blades and pointing upwards.
"Okay, so you're tall. Who cares?" Blaine smiled, causing Kurt to laugh silently with his nose scrunching up and his eyes crinkling at the corners.
"You don't laugh like you used to." Blaine said, his eyebrows furrowing into an almost continuous line. Kurt tilted his head slightly in confusion before Blaine elaborated. "You don't laugh out loud." He said, motioning to his hand that he still had resting gently on Kurt's lower neck/collar bone.
"It's not fair to you." Kurt mouthed. Blaine pulled back further to get a better view of Kurt's lips to read them but instead Kurt reluctantly withdrew his hands from around Blaine to sign to him.
-I don't like that it's not fair to you. I get to hear your laugh and yet I can't return the favour I guess. I just... it's unfair. Lots of things are, but this just makes me feel like I'm actually making things a tiny bit less unfair. Does that even make sense?
-Yes Blaine signed, breath caught in his throat and hands shaking. Of course it made sense; everything Kurt does makes sense. He's always so selfless and kind. Blaine thought. -You don't have to though. Just for me. It silly for you to change even just a little bit for me.
Oh you've no idea how much I'd do for you, you adorable fuzzball, Kurt thought.
-More silly than us sitting in your u-t-i-l-i-t-y room and not watching the movie that Rachel and Mercedes are probably watching without us? He signed instead, a cheeky smile on his face. Blaine let out a laugh and signed back.
-Yes. More so than that even.
-Well how about we stop being silly and go watch that movie anyway? Kurt suggested, offering a hand out theatrically to Blaine where they stood.
-Only if I get to use my favourite pillow, Blaine smirked.
-You have a favourite pillow? Kurt asked, intrigued.
-Yes. You. Blaine smirked again, a cheeky glint in his eyes that caused Kurt to giggle aloud, but smile as Blaine placed his hand in Kurt's and Kurt led the younger boy out of the small utility room and back into the living room to join with the girls...
Kurt awoke in the early hours of Saturday morning, dappled moonlight breaking gently through the gap in the curtains, knowing only that he was lying on something that was most definitely not a cushion.
He groaned and reached under his back with his right hand as he rolled onto his side and reached back to retrieve what turned out to be the DVD player's remote control. He threw it away onto another cluster of pillows nearby and flopped back to lie back and stare at the ceiling.
That dream was so good. I can't even remember what it was but it was good. He huffed silently. He gazed upwards, past his outstretched left hand and took in the scene around him through the darkness.
Rachel was curled into a ball under a thick blanket at one end of the smaller loveseat whilst Mercedes had her legs stretched out over the entire 3-seater couch beside it. Kurt's own legs were tangled up in blankets as he lay on the thick coating of cushions that covered the floor. Blaine was curled into a ball too, also lying on the floor but he had let one of his arms reach out across the cushions, his fingers just inches from Kurt's own outstretched hand. Kurt smiled at the small boy and how much smaller he seemed when he slept so curled up. He reached out those extra few inches, shifting his body on the cushions to get comfy again within reach of Blaine and tangling their fingers together. A small smile spread over Blaine's cheeks as he squeezed Kurt's fingers in his sleep, shifting slightly and drawing slightly closer. Kurt couldn't repress his own smile at the sight, the peaceful bliss of his expression.
Closing his eyes, Kurt felt slumber pulling him back under when the unwelcome arrival of a song in his mind made him more awake than he wished to be. He almost grumbled in annoyance as he struggled to remember any of the words to the melody running circles in his head.
If... no wait, how does it go?
If 'Happy Ever After's did exist,
I bet they'd never picture them like this?
... Something about fairy tales... Oh who cares? I'll just make it up.
If 'Happy Ever After's did exist,
I bet they'd never picture them like this.
Of all these fairy tales that we have seen,
You are the only one for me, my dream...?
Hey that's not half bad. Hm...
Kurt looked back at form that was the tiny ball of Blaine close by, at their intertwined fingers and Blaine's smile, and smiled to himself once more.
If Happy Ever After's do exist,
You've no idea how much you deserve it,
All of these fairy tales just aren't worth it,
'Cause they don't know what we've got: we'll make it.
Now I'm at a payphone...
Bonus! Now with artwork for the HP marathon a couple of chapters back here - (Just get rid of the spaces)
theinvisibleteen . tumblr post / 27693307316 / calledoutinthedark
