Kurt was semi-aware of the footsteps coming down the hall. Judging by the heavy thuds, he deducted that it was one of the football players, probably coming to pick on him. Kurt heard them stop right next to him, and braced himself for impact.
"Bro, are you alright?" Kurt heard Finn say above him as he felt a giant hand on his shoulder. Kurt immediately relaxed. He raised his head to look at Finn, who had a worried look on his face. "Mercedes said that you left with Blaine for Gym class or something..."
"Thanks Finn, but I'm fine. I'm just waiting for Blaine to finish changing." Kurt nodded his head towards the change rooms on the opposite side of the hall. Finn looked over his shoulder to look at the entrance, then removed his hand and sat down next to Kurt, leaning against the lockers. There was a moment of silence between the step-brothers. "I guess I have to tell you about why I wanted your jacket?" Finn nodded.
"Does this have something to do with Blaine?" Finn asked before Kurt could start talking. Kurt looked down before starting to trace circles in the floor with his finger.
"Yeah, it does. Listen. I told dad about this yesterday, but you cannot tell anyone. Especially Rachel. Got it?" Kurt whispered urgently. With wide eyes, Finn nodded quickly. "Blaine is a wing carrier, like dad and I." Kurt said in a hushed tone. He didn't know if Blaine could hear him from inside the change rooms, so he had to keep quiet. "He is also gay, but I didn't tell dad that. Anyways, I'm trying to hide my wings, thus using your jacket because it's thick enough to block the wings, from Blaine because he's new and I don't want him finding out that I'm one too."
"But why do you want to hide them? It's not like Blaine's going to hate you. In fact, if you hide your wings and show him later, he may be angry at you because you hid them from him. Aren't you two like best friends or something?" Finn stated quietly, knowing that Blaine might hear their discussion.
"Dad said that he had an argument with a man with the last name of Anderson, and I have a feeling that Blaine and this man are related somehow. If they were, and Blaine told this man, who knows what could happen to me or dad." Kurt shivered slightly. "And no, we're not 'best friends or something', I'm just being a good person and showing him around, that s all." Finn gave Kurt a small smirk and playful shove on the shoulder, as if saying 'as if'. Kurt poked his tongue at Finn, who laughed.
Blaine chose that moment to exit the change rooms. He saw Kurt with his tongue out and Finn laughing, and thought about those times when he did that with his brother. A small, sad smile appeared on the new student's face as he recalled those memories. The laughter died down as Kurt and Finn noticed Blaine.
"Good, you've finished changing," Kurt observed with a grin. "Where do you want to go now?" Blaine moved towards the brothers on the ground and held out a hand towards Kurt, gesturing him to hold on. Kurt held onto the outstretched hand and was pulled up. Kurt swore that there was a spark between his and Blaine's hands as they touched. He looked at Blaine, who was looking at Finn. Together, Kurt and Blaine helped Finn up.
Just as about Finn turned to leave, Kurt caught him by the shoulder. "Don't tell dad about Blaine being gay, okay?" Kurt whispered to Finn, who gave Kurt a thumbs-up. Finn ambled away, and Kurt turned back to Blaine, whose wings were visible behind their carrier.
"What were you talking about?" asked Blaine.
"You know, brotherly stuff."
"I see." Silence.
"Hey why don't we go to the Gym first? No-one's going to be there, so we can try out the new equipment first. How about that?" Blaine gave Kurt a small smile and followed him to the sports hall.
They entered the hall, and right in the middle was a structure which resembled a scaffolding tower. Kurt stared at the contraption. It wasn't new, and it definitely didn't meet his expectations. He had imagined the agility set-up to be shiny and strong, and looking a bit more like something you can find in a playground, with monkey bars and fireman poles and all the bells and whistles, but instead, they got this. a dull grey, three-storey, scaffolding tower.
"So, you going to show me your skills?" Blaine asked with a raised eyebrow. Kurt looked at Blaine, then back at the contraption, then back at the boy again.
"You expect me to go on that thing?" Kurt shrieked as he pointed at the structure. "It could fall down at any moment!"
Blaine laughed loudly. "And you were the one who wanted to come here to test it out, I recall. And you were pretty enthusiastic about it, too." Kurt pouted, but internally, he was relieved that Blaine had reverted to his normal self.
"Fine, Mr Recall. I'll show you my skills." Kurt smirked at Blaine, before launching himself at the tower of metal.
He sprinted towards one of the sides and jumped to catch one of the horizontal bars. Kurt let himself gain momentum, before releasing one hand to reach for another bar. He swung his legs around to perch on another bar, before standing up and launching himself upwards again. He caught another bar and brought his feet up so that his knees acted as hooks to allow him to let go and hang upside down. He made sure that he was still wearing Finn's jacket and that it was covering his back, before smiling innocently at Blaine.
"What do you think?" Asked Kurt from his upside down position. Blaine gave Kurt what looked like an awed look, before Kurt sat up and started to climb the structure again.
Kurt reached the middle platform and punched the air with his fists, before raising an eyebrow at Blaine, who clapped and smiled.
"Okay, you've proved yourself. You can come down now." Blaine laughed from the ground.
"Are you kidding me? Once I start, I can't stop until I reach the top!" A large grin appeared on Kurt's face, before he turned around to proceed to reach the last platform.
"Kurt! It looks unsafe, like it's shaking." Blaine called with a worried tone. "It could fall, you know? Ahh... You should come down!" But the determined boy kept climbing the scaffolding like if he had done it a million times before. However, as Kurt neared the top, the shakier the structure became.
Eventually, Kurt reached the top, but instead of standing on the platform inside the metal bars, he climbed onto the bars surrounding the platform, so if he fell, there was nothing to hold him back.
"Woohoo! I'm the king of the world!" Kurt pumped his fists in the air, almost touching the ceiling of the hall. It was amazing that Kurt had that much balance for a human, Blaine admired, but he was getting worried.
"Okay, you should really come down now. I don't want you to fall." Blaine said, with the worry evident in his voice. Kurt just grinned down at Blaine. The lights in the hall illuminated his face, which made his features look like they were glowing.
"Hey, I'm fine here, Blaine, so don't worry about me." Kurt shouted as the structure shook more.
"No, really, I think you should-"
"Hey fairy! What are you doing? Trying to fly?" Sneered a voice from the other side of the hall. Kurt froze at the voice. He lowered his arms and tried to look for the football player.
"No, in fact. I was just testing if this structure could hold my weight. You know, I bet you can't even get up here without breaking the metal!" Kurt sarcastically spat.
The football player scowled and rushed forward toward the scaffolding. He grabbed one of the legs and started to shake it, making the structure sway and shake even more than before. Kurt let out a scared cry as he was rapidly losing his balance. Blaine was stuck frozen in his spot. He didn't know what to do. If Kurt fell, then he could die. Blaine couldn't let that happen.
With a burst of energy, Blaine flew towards the scaffolding, wings out behind him to maximise his aerodynamics.
Then, Kurt fell.
Blaine froze when he saw Kurt start falling. He couldn't lift his legs. Blaine started panicking and his heart started pounding like crazy. He was just one metre away from Kurt's landing spot, and he couldn't get there to catch the falling human. Then, it was like time froze. Kurt's body became trapped in mid-air and the football player's face was captured in a mixture of enjoyment and anger. Blaine felt disgusted towards the football player, but he stared at Kurt's supine form above him.
He reached out and pulled Kurt towards him. Blaine embraced Kurt's body, and willed his heart to return to normal speed. Soon enough, time started to play normally again.
The football player was still shaking the tower, but Kurt found himself tight in an embrace. He looked behind him to find that the arms belonged to Blaine. Blaine's head was on Kurt's shoulder, and was sending the bully a sharp glare. Kurt took a peek at Blaine's wings to see that they were flexed, feathers looking like knives, like his dad's the night before. Kurt shivered. Then he blushed. He had just realised that it was Blaine that was holding him. And that he wasn't actually dead from falling off the tower. He smiled to himself, before redirecting his focus to the football player.
It wasn't until two minutes later that the football player noticed that Kurt and Blaine were staring at him. Blaine had his arms around Kurt in a sign of protection, his wings, though invisible to humans, were barred with each feather gleaming like a blade. The bully stared mouth open in dumbstruck at the two boys for two reasons. One: Kurt should have hit the floor, and two: the new kid had his arms around the gay kid. He stopped shaking the scaffold and released the leg, before backing out of the Gym and running towards his team mates.
Kurt and Blaine sighed in relief. Then they realised what position they were in. Quickly, they jumped apart, looking in opposite directions and taking deep breaths to calm themselves down.
Kurt turned towards Blaine, who had his back turned towards Kurt. He cleared his throat and Blaine froze. "Um... Thanks for saving me. I should have listened to you." Blaine turned around so that he was looking at Kurt. He opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. Kurt looked down to his shoes and tears started to fall freely onto the Gym floor. "I'm sorry." He said in a small, broken voice. "I won't bother you anymore." And with that, Kurt bolted out of the sports hall.
Blaine stretched out his hand after Kurt, trying to reach out to him again, but Blaine's feet were stuck. He dropped his hand slowly and tears began to form in his eyes.
"Wait..." He fell to the floor, his mind never leaving Kurt.
So, how was it? Reviews are appreciated. :D
Regarding Blaine's time freeze, it's NOT a special ability that wing carriers have, it's just a general feeling that normal people get when their heart starts pumping, you know, like adrenalin and all that biology stuff?
Preview of next chapter:
The group of loud students were bunched in smaller sub-groups, gossiping and laughing, ignoring anything and everything around them.
Next chapter comes out on the 25th. See you soon :D