Chapter 10
Kurt's head was speared to the ground with agony, when he woke spread-eagled on the ground with the rain pattering down on him. If he moved even a muscle, he was afraid his head would shatter like a dropped egg, spilling his brains on the ground. He held as still as he could, hoping the intensity would abate. He shivered as the rain pelting him reminded him he was lying out in the open. He should try to find shelter.
A constant sound penetrated his misery. He couldn't identify the wet sound, like a wave making ripples in a river, but it came and faded away over and over again, sometimes softly and sometimes louder, sometimes accompanied by a mechanical roar competing with the wet noises. A different sound rose above the background chaos, blaring in a belligerent two second honk before it suddenly disappeared. It was noisy here, he could tell, but where was 'here'? The unfamiliar surroundings felt so alien…
Blaine! Where was Blaine? Kurt forced himself to roll to his side, his gratification at discovering his brains were apparently intact, underlying his terror over losing Blaine. He winced as he carefully opened his eyes and looked with astonishment at West Road, which in his time was a quiet hard packed dirt road leading to Mercy's rural house. Today it bustled with metal conveyances of all sizes, colours and shapes rolling on big black tires, following one behind the other in a constant procession. He saw a forest of wooden poles overhead supporting a cat's cradle of wires amid innumerable lettered signs flashing with lights, each shouting for his attention. All his senses were being bombarded, the information overload making him close his eyes. His only defense was to shut it all out, until he found the strength he needed to find the boy he loved.
"Blaine? Where are you? Blaine?" He called him weakly, his voice barely audible, as he shakily pulled himself upright and looked around in frightened bewilderment. There was no way Blaine would hear him over the constant cacophony around him Where was he? He was standing on the grass in front of a house with a sign advertising the dental services of Dr. Ches Jones. What if he never found Blaine again? What if they had somehow become separated and Blaine was lost to him forever?
"Oh god, please Blaine, don't leave me here alone!" He was crying with distress now, as he swayed on his feet, bubbles of blackness popping in his head telling him he was about to collapse. He lurched a couple steps to grab at the railing on the nearby stairs, thumping down ungracefully on his ass, before he fell down.
Ohh! The twinge of discomfort reminded him that only last night, he and Blaine had made love for the first time, exploring new experiences for most of the night. They had conquered the last barrier between them, hoping to increase the chances of staying linked through the transfer back to Blaine's time. He couldn't lose him now, when he'd given up everything he knew to be with him. Please God, don't leave me marooned here without Blaine, he prayed fervently, trying to hold down the incipient hysteria edging closer with every minute.
The helpless anguish in the boy's feeble voice caught the curious attention of a girl leaving her father's dental office. Mercedes had stopped in to pick up some shopping money, on her way to the nearby mall. She slowed beside him on the steps to check him out. The poor guy looked seriously distraught, and was barely able to sit upright. Was he sick or strung out on something?
"Hey, are you okay, dude? You sound like you're in trouble. Chill out for a minute and I'll try to help. " She bent over to look into his face, her warm brown eyes and tentative smile distracting Kurt from his fears.
Kurt took a second incredulous glance at her, his shock distracting him from his dismay. Goodness gracious! He had thought at first it was Mercy! The girl's skin was a shade lighter than Mercy's glossy black, her hair was cut in a sleek shoulder length bob, and she was a little heavier, but she had the same gentle kindness in her eyes and sweet smile his best friend always had for him.
His eyes widened with disbelief at her clothing. She was wearing a hip length hooded jacket, in a luminous shade of fuchsia Kurt had never seen outside a flower garden before, and a pair of snug blue leggings under a black knee length garment of some sort! How in heaven's name had she escaped her mother's attention dressed like that? Nevertheless, she seemed sympathetic and willing to help. He definitely needed her help, if he'd lost Blaine.
"I seem to have lost my friend. We were supposed to meet around here" Kurt answered her softly, immediately trusting her. Her resemblance to his best friend calmed him immensely, familiar in this strange place.
"Well honey, what's he or she look like and I'll see if I can help?" She answered him calmly, coming closer to hunker down beside him on the step, ignoring the constant drizzle falling on them both. She smiled at him encouragingly. He didn't seem to be under the influence of anything, simply sick or lost maybe. She knew most of the kids around here, and he was a nubie, so maybe he was a tourist or something.
"Um…well, he's …ah, rather short in stature, with black curly hair. Rather a nice looking boy, with golden green eyes." Kurt could see crowds of people walking nearby, people riding in the cars, people weaving around obstacles on bicycles, people were everywhere! How would he ever find Blaine in this seething crowd of humanity?
"Hmm" She stood to scan the area then glanced down at him with a sassy grin. "Would he be that guy, the one who seems to be lookin' for somebody he lost too?" The girl pointed with her chin toward Blaine, posed confidently with her hands on her hips, her mouth curled up in a smile. There he was, standing forty feet away in front of the Harkness House, searching up and down the road, with a hint of desperation in his stance. They could see his mouth open to call out, but his voice was washed away in the constant background noise.
"Blaine! Oh my god, Blaine!" Kurt jumped excitedly to his feet to run to his boyfriend, but he appeared to have not yet gotten his sea legs, and immediately tripped his fell length on the grass. The horrified girl bent to see that he was still conscious, and then ran to get his friend.
"Hey, I think your friend like, fainted or something. He's over there." Blaine followed her pointing finger to see Kurt struggling upright to sit again. He raced over to kneel beside him and immediately pulled him into his arms to clutch him against his chest and kiss his hair in relief.
Mercedes watched this display and huffed a sigh in consternation. Damn it. It figured. It seemed all the cute ones were either gay or taken. Prospective hotties aside, she was still concerned that the boy with the beautiful eyes was feeling alright so she approached them slowly, as they pulled apart to look into each other's eyes sappily. Geeze, how cute were they? Nobody had ever looked at her like that, after she misplaced them.
"Um, dude, is he okay? Do you guys need a ride home or to a hospital or something? I've got my Mom's car just over there, if you do." Mercedes had intended to leave her mom's car here, before walking over to the mall to shop for a while. The mall had a maximum four hour parking rule and she might be there all day, if she went to a movie or something. All her friends were busy and she was sort of looking for something to fill up her day so, finding a distraction from a boring day was cool with her.
Blaine shot her a grateful smile. "Yeah a ride home would be great, if you don't mind. He's very weak and I don't want him to walk very far." Mercedes pitched in to wrap an arm around Kurt in support and led them both to her aged SUV. Blaine tenderly lowered Kurt into the back seat, doing up his belt, while she strapped on her own seat belt in the driver's seat. Kurt looked around himself warily, while Blaine strapped himself in too. He grabbed his boyfriend's hand and held it tightly, while they began to move at much too fast a pace in one of those gleaming metal conveyances Blaine called cars.
"So your name is Blaine, I know from your friend, and my name is Mercedes. What's his name?" Mercedes was curious about her new friends and knew the best way to find out what was going on, was to ask. They owed her that much for the ride, right?
"My boyfriend's name is Kurt Hummel and he's had a really tough day. It's nice to meet you, Mercedes. You don't know how much I appreciate your help."
"No probs, hon. I was just going shopping for something to do. So where are we headed?" She glanced in the rear view mirror to see the two boys gazing at each other again with an expression of pleased wonder. She heard the more fragile-looking brown haired boy say softly. "We made it Blaine! This is where…when we were supposed to end up, isn't it? His boyfriend smiled back happily as he nodded to him, then he belatedly answered Mercedes' question.
"I live in Findley, if you don't mind taking us there. Mason Circle…22 Mason. Go right at the first light and then left at the second corner onto Mason, then down near the end.
Blaine held Kurt's hand tightly, as if he might still disappear on him, while Mercedes drove them to his house. They'd made it, they'd actually made it home! Blaine had tried not to count on coming back home again, mostly praying that Kurt and he made it somewhere together. God, he would never take his home, his friends and his family for granted again! Things looked pretty much the same as when he left, the trees freshly leaved and the lilacs still blooming.
Kurt looked around in open mouthed wonder while they threaded through the traffic, at the whole town now transformed to a metropolis. Even more remarkable, Blaine had confessed their relationship to a complete stranger and hadn't even gotten a second glance, much less a glare of repugnance!
"Um, can I could borrow your phone? Mine got pooched in the rain." Blaine asked casually for the use of the phone he saw tucked into Mercedes capacious vivid lime green purse to find out what the date was without sounding sort of stunned. She passed it back to him wordlessly as she navigated the traffic. Maybe she could figure out what these two were doing from eavesdropping on his phone call.
"Oh, my screen unlock code is a backward zee" She added carelessly. Kurt blinked at her incomprehensible phrase, remembering Blaine's strange dialect of English that he would have to learn, if he wanted to communicate with the natives effectively. Blaine had seemed far less displaced in his time, than he felt right now, completely lost in this strange new world.
He watched as Blaine pressed a button on the small device and then swiped his finger over the top of it in a backward zee. Ah, that's what she meant! Kurt saw a scene showing three girls illuminate the front of the device, with smaller pictures dotted over it in a pattern. Why would someone do that to a perf… His thought was interrupted when Blaine touched ones of the tiny pictures, and it suddenly turned into a calendar. Blaine showed it to him without comment. The date lit up in blue was June 5, 2011. Blaine pointed to the time then, showing as 2:42 pm. "It's the same day Kurt, only a couple hours after I left," He whispered softly, so Mercedes wouldn't hear.
It was nearly the same time, on the same day, that Blaine had been struck senseless and landed at Kurt's feet more than a hundred and thirty years in the past. They had somehow ended up back in Blaine's era without having lost much time at all, though he'd spent nearly two weeks with Kurt! No one here would have noticed anything unusual had happened to Blaine. Kurt watched as Blaine pressed another button to make the screen turn to a pattern of numbers. He pressed a long series of the numbers and held it to his head. Kurt thought at first he was playing a tune on a musical instrument, hearing the soft beeping sound of the tones, but then Blaine surprised him by speaking, while gazing off into the distance.
"Hey Nick, it's Blaine. Something came up and I'm not going to make it to the movie today. I know you probably have that figured out by now, but I didn't want you to worry about me. I'll talk to you tonight dude, and I'll try to explain. Later." He pressed the large button and passed the phone back to the front seat. Kurt presumed Blaine hadn't just had a conversation with the device, and somehow that little thing communicated with his friend Nick.
"Thanks, Mercy…des" Blaine glanced to Kurt, with his eyebrows raised to ask if he had noticed the eerie similarity to his best friend. Kurt nodded. Yes he definitely had. Was it only coincidence that Mercedes had been the first person they saw on their arrival and Mercy one of the last, at their departure?
The car rolled to a stop in front of a huge mansion, at Blaine's direction. That was the only word that applied, as Kurt stared at a huge estate home set on a large parcel of land. Other enormous houses surrounded it, all with large stonework gates at the end of the driveway. Mercedes peered at the house with interest, having never actually met anyone who lived in one of those stone piles. She stole another glance at Blaine, but he was focused only on undoing Kurt's seatbelt.
"Here we are, Blaine. Do you and Kurt want a hand into the house?" She'd love to see the inside of one of those places. Her parent's house was no shack, but wow, this place made her normal two story brick house look like one.
"Sure, if you wouldn't mind. I don't know yet how steady he is on his feet." Blaine replied solicitously and opened his door, while Mercedes shut off the purring car. Kurt had about enough of being treated as helpless baggage. He sat up straighter, and put his shoulders back.
"Surely Miss Mercedes has other appointments requiring her attention, Blaine. I'll be recovered shortly. I'm just a little tired." Kurt protested, as Blaine backed out of the car, encouragingly holding his hand out to Kurt. Kurt emerged from the car, pointedly avoiding Blaine's hand, and immediately lurched clumsily against him, still pretty wobbly on his legs. Lord, the headache was still making him see black spots every time he stood up. He was truthfully absolutely exhausted after an eventful night of little sleep, and getting them back here seemed to have drained whatever energy he had left.
"Yeah, sure you are Kurt. Just take my hand and stop being stubborn." Blaine said flatly.
Mercedes chuckled at the two of them bickering like an old married couple. Kurt was forced to concede and let them support him as they escorted him into the house, or risk landing on his face in the walkway. Blaine closed the door softly after they entered the house and began to steer them for the stairway. Mercedes couldn't help gazing around in admiration at the marble foyer, with its huge chandelier hanging overhead, and a wide central Tara staircase with flanking hallways on both sides. They had barely set foot on the steps when a woman intercepted them from the rear of the house. Busted!
"Oh…hello, Blaine. I wasn't expecting you home so soon. Didn't you say you were going to a movie with Nick and Jeff? Did something come up, because I haven't met these friends?" A petite dark-haired woman, wearing an elegant grey designer pant suit and pearls stood smiling up at them expectantly.
"Mom!" Blaine checked that Kurt was stable then impulsively leapt down the two steps to hug his mother. She widened her eyes in surprise at his unexpected action.
"Well! Thank you, Blaine. I am grateful for the expression of affection, but have you done something that you need to tell me about?" Her voice sounded bemused but held a note of misgiving at his abnormal behaviour. They hadn't hugged since Blaine had become a teenager, and insisted he was no longer her sweet little boy.
"Oh…no. I haven't done anything bad, Mom. I just wanted to say how much I love you."
His innocent eyes were looking at hers openly, so she let it go, but he was acting very peculiar. She wondered if his strange behavior was connected to these two new friends.
"This is Mercedes…uh. "Blaine blanked on her last name, since she'd never actually told him what it was. Mercedes leapt into the gap smoothly.
"Jones. I'm Mercedes Jones. Pleased to meet you, ma'am." She smiled politely, trying to project innocence as well as Blaine did. Her new friend's mother responded with a nod, since they were still supporting Kurt, so shaking hands wasn't an option. Kurt and Blaine's eyes met, when they heard Mercedes last name realizing that Mercedes had to be one of Mercy's descendants.
"And this… is Kurt Hummel. We're just taking him upstairs to lie down for a bit, because he fainted downtown." Blaine explained the situation nervously, deciding to keep it short and sweet. Right now, he needed to get Kurt somewhere safe and let him rest. Blaine hadn't forgotten what it felt like to land somewhere completely foreign, feeling like you'd just had all of the stuffing knocked out of you.
"I see. Would it not be best to take him to his own home, where his parents can monitor his condition?" Mrs. Anderson asked reasonably.
"Um…"Blaine completely blanked on what to say to his mother. He couldn't say that Kurt's father was long gone. Kurt filled in the gap himself this time.
"My mother passed away when I was eight and my father is currently …unavailable. I apologize for intruding into your home, but Blaine very kindly offered me a place to recover." Kurt spoke levelly, though Mercedes still held his arm.
"Oh, I see. Of course you're welcome here, Kurt. Goodness, you do look very pale. Go ahead upstairs to the guest room and I'll bring you some ginger ale in a few minutes. The sugar will help if you're feeling woozy and the ginger will help settle your stomach." She turned to go to the kitchen at the back of the house and they continued upstairs.
Blast, Blaine muttered to himself. Of course, his mother insisted on sending Kurt to the guest room. He would have put Kurt in his own bed, because that's where he belonged, as far as he was concerned. They turned into the guest room, which was seldom used and had a stale deserted feeling. They installed Kurt onto the bed, where he began to shiver, likely in reaction to the shock, his wet clothing in the cool air-conditioned room chilling him further. "I'll be right back with something warm for you to change into, hon." Blaine dashed out the door to his own room, leaving him alone with Mercedes.
"Um… How come your boyfriend's mother has never met you?" She asked, perplexed. She wanted to ask Kurt tons of other things, but he looked pretty faded so she held off in favour of getting some of his wet clothes off him. She told him to start getting out of his shirt while she found him a towel to dry off. He was soaked to the skin, through everything. She returned with the towel to find him huddled into himself, not even started on his shirt.
"Honey, you're going to catch pneumonia if you don't get dry. Take your shirt off and I'll help you dry off." She assumed Kurt was too tired to do it himself.
Kurt merely looked at her and replied haughtily. "I hardly think so. We've just met!" There was absolutely no way he was going to take his shirt off in front of her, with evidence all over him of a night spent making love with Blaine.
She chuckled at what she assumed was a joke, when Blaine came back with a change of clothes accompanied by his mother, bearing a tray. She set it down on the night table and bent to touch her cool hand to Kurt's forehead. He held as still as he could, but she could feel him shivering.
"You don't have a fever, I think. Do you feel any pain or do you think you might be getting a virus?" Her voice held only concern for the pale boy huddled into himself before her.
Kurt looked at her in confusion. What in land's sake was a 'virus'? "I… I'll be f-f-fine after I rest for a short w-w-while. I'm just v-v-very tired and I have a r-r-rather bad headache." Kurt tried to smile reassuringly, but his constant thrum of shivering didn't help much to convince her.
"You haven't slept much and you've hardly eaten anything much either, Kurt. You need to get dry and warm, eat something and then try to sleep for a bit." Blaine interrupted sympathetically before he remembered he was supposed to have only left home a few hours ago, as far as his mother knew. Kurt glanced upward to him warningly, silently cautioning him to watch what he said. Mercedes watched them, wondering what the hell was going on. Something was hinky, she knew. Maybe Blaine's mom didn't know he was gay?
Blaine's mother didn't seem to notice anything odd. All she saw was a sick boy that brought out the mother in her. "Blaine's absolutely right. Change into something warm and dry and get into the bed. I'll get you some Advil while Blaine warms some soup and then you should rest for a bit. Please be assured you're welcome to stay here with us until you feel better." Blaine's mother ran her hand in a caress over Kurt's damp hair, then took the pile of clothes from Blaine and handed them to Kurt. She glanced from Blaine to the open door expectantly. Blaine took the hint and went to warm soup with Mercedes following him, though he would have rather stayed to help Kurt change.
When the door closed behind them, Kurt unfolded the bundle in his lap and found a plain white undershirt and a pair of blue flannel trousers that felt warm and soft. He gratefully peeled off his wet clothes, but without a hook or chair nearby to hang them on, left them draped over the end of the bed. He donned the dry clothes and gratefully climbed into the bed, sighing in exhaustion as he settled the covers over himself. As soon as he settled in, his fatigue took over and he dropped into exhausted slumber.
Blaine found some canned chicken soup in the pantry and was nuking it for his boyfriend, while Mercedes watched him, considering her options. She should probably go now, but she was intrigued with these two.
"Blaine, how come your Mom has never met your boyfriend?" She asked him softly, recognizing she was being nosy, but hey, if you want to know something, the best way to find out is to ask. "Does she even know you're gay?" She had her suspicions about a few other guys she knew, but hardly blamed them for keeping it on the downlow, here in Ohio. With all the casual homophobic behavior around, people calling anything odd or unusual 'gay', who would want to admit they were gay?
Blaine glanced at Mercedes, about to answer her when his mother came into the kitchen, buttoning her coat and her purse in hand. "Blaine, here is the Advil for your friend. I have to run now, if I'm not going to be late for my bridge day. Please call me if he feels worse, and I'll gladly run home. Otherwise, I should be back by seven. It was nice to meet you, Mercedes. Please feel welcome anytime." She smiled at them, and paused to kiss Blaine lightly as she left. Blaine started getting a tray ready for Kurt, picking up Mercedes question again.
"No she doesn't know Kurt. It's kind of a long story Mercedes, but we haven't known each other that long. I'll tell you about how we met someday, if you really want to know. I think we're gonna stay friends, from now on." They smiled at each other warmly for a few seconds, Mercedes feeling a blush of warmth at Blaine's approval. He didn't object when she followed him, carrying the tray carefully back upstairs to find Kurt sleeping peacefully.
Mercedes busied herself by picking up the wet clothes from the end of the bed, eying the unfashionable homemade clothes and weird underclothing Kurt had been wearing and hung them in the shower to dry, wondering if Kurt was an escaped member of some strange religious sect or something. She was back in time to see Blaine gently brushing the hair from Kurt's face, with a loving gesture that told her he was totally nuts about Kurt. Why couldn't she find someone who felt that way about her?
"I guess I should go now." She had probably outstayed her welcome, judging by Blaine's complete absorption with the sleeping boy. She admired the way Blaine's shirt was stuck to his compact but very nice bod and realized he was still wearing his rain-sodden clothes too. "Hey, you're soaked too, Blaine. You should change into something dry or you risk catching something. Then who is gonna look after him?"
Blaine looked up at her with a considering look, before he sprang a non sequiter on her. "How much do you know about your family history, Mercedes?"
The question knocked her sideways. "Say what?" She asked, confused as hell. Being around these two was like watching a movie on a random skip. You never knew which scene you were going to come in on next.
Blaine knew that Kurt had been comforted by Mercedes presence, so he wanted to keep in touch with their rescuing angel. "Never mind. We'll talk about it some other time. Do you think I could have your number? Kurt will want to thank you himself for rescuing us."
Mercedes shrugged agreeably. "Sure, I'd like to see you guys again too." She couldn't care less that they were gay boyfriends. They were nice guys and she liked Blaine a lot already. She wrote her information down for him and then showed herself out, wondering if she would ever hear from them again.
Blaine immediately changed into clean dry boxers and a t-shirt, set the alarm clock for six and then crawled gratefully into bed beside Kurt. He wrapped around his warm relaxed body and in only moments was fast asleep too. It had been an exhausting few days leading up to his return to his home, and now they could relax for a bit without worrying about anything.
He woke up an hour and a half later to find the flannel was tented below the waist of Kurt's sleep pants, nudging his side. He left a kiss on Kurt's lips and watched him twitch in reaction with a smile of recognition. He slowly opened those incredible blue eyes to gaze back into his and raked his hair back with his fingers.
"Feeling better?" Blaine asked, glancing at the clock. They had an hour before his mother returned. That was more than enough time to show his boyfriend how glad he was to have made it back here with him.
Kurt nodded sleepily. "Yes, much better. I was so tired, Blaine." He was becoming aware that he probably looked a fearsome sight and dropped his eyes from his boyfriend's shyly. Blaine wondered where his intrepidly adventurous boyfriend of the night before had gone and wondered if he could lure him back out again.
"Is there anything I can do for you to welcome you home?" Blaine asked teasingly, sliding his index finger under the waist band of Kurt's sleep pants to gently caress his belly, in a less than subtle hint that he was eager to practice his technique some more.
Kurt inhaled quickly and tensed, instantly aware of Blaine's fascination. Blaine scrunched down onto his hip, about to move down farther, blithely oblivious to Kurt's reluctance to be intimate just after arriving in a strange and alien world. Kurt's hand stopped his, just as he was about to peel the elastic waist down when the door to the room suddenly banged open, scaring them both half to death. Kurt let out a screech, and dived under the covers, bumping Blaine on the nose with his elbow in his panic to escape.
"Ow" he groaned from behind his hand holding his nose, and seeing stars. He really hoped to god it wasn't his mother, arrived home early to check on them, or he was in deep doodoo. He squinted around his hand, relieved to see his friends, Nick and Jeff standing open mouthed with shock at finding him in bed with …oh. Awkward.
"Holy crap, Blaine! Were you gonna blow him? I didn't even know you had …that you'd ever…holy crap." Jeff tapered off, surprised into an echoingly awkward silence. Nick glanced at him, then smacked his shoulder. "Be cool, dude." He whispered tersely, before he turned to address Blaine again, starting over as if Jeff hadn't blurted out his question.
"We're sorry Blaine, for busting in on you like this, but we needed to find out who you brought here. We've been worried sick about you. First, you didn't show up at the theatre when Wes said you'd left an hour earlier. Then I got that totally uninformative voice message from you two hours afterward. So I called your mother to see if she knew what was going on. She said you were back here again now, with somebody you had brought home sick. We were afraid something was wrong with one of the guys, Blaine. We had no idea you were, um...ah. Busy, with someone. "
Nick tapered off then too, not sure exactly what Blaine and whoever that was huddled under the covers were doing, though it sure did look like what Jeff had thought it was. "Tell me you didn't bail on us for a hookup with… Is that somebody we know, with you?" Blaine could hardly blame Nick for assuming that whoever was supposed to be sick was one of their friends, since Blaine never hung out with anyone but the Warblers.
Now, they were both looking uncomfortable, suddenly aware they might be outing one of their school friends. "You don't have to worry about us saying anything about this, if you don't want us to, you know." Nick reassured whoever that was hiding under the covers that they could keep their mouths shut.
Blaine smiled at his friends, only slightly embarrassed to be caught in bed with his boyfriend. They would have to meet Kurt sometime, so it may as well be now. "Kurt, come out from under there and meet my friends, Nick and Jeff. Guys, this is Kurt Hummel, my …ah, boyfriend." Kurt slowly emerged from the suffocating blankets warily to see two boys looking back at him with intrigued interest, but not a hint of revulsion. My god, they had been caught in the middle of the day in bed together by Blaine's friends, which would have been positively dire where he came from!
Nick and Jeff saw a pale boy with enormous blue eyes, and a messy shock of brown hair slowly emerge from under the blankets to peer at them nervously.
"Hey, Kurt" Jeff said, with a friendly wave. "We're sorry we busted in and scared you, dude. We didn't mean to interrupt your fun." He grinned ingenuously ready to befriend whoever Blaine liked.
"Yeah, we would definitely have knocked if we'd known Blaine was um...like, with you." Nick apologized awkwardly. Kurt blushed deeply, but warily nodded his acceptance of their apology. They were nearly as embarrassed as he was, but they didn't seem horrified, or disgusted. This situation seemed very surreal to him. After having spent breakfast with his father and Mercy and Anita, now he was in a totally new world, with new attitudes.
"Damn right, you should have knocked. I'm sorry about bailing on you guys, but stuff way beyond my control happened. Complicated, weird stuff so…ah, maybe I could fill you in with what happened later."
"Hey, do you two maybe want to go grab some burgers?" Jeff said hopefully. "We never did get lunch."
"I believe Blaine was trying to convey that we already had made other plans. Perhaps we could meet another time?" Kurt's level voice belied his heart hammering in his chest as he declined the two intruders' invitation politely but firmly, then watched uncomfortably as the two boys nodded knowingly. He had merely wanted to imply that he and Blaine were not interested in socializing just now because they were so tired, but he could tell by their expressions that they had understood something altogether different. Kurt blushed even more when Jeff sent Blaine a smirking quick glance, with a 'way to score, dude' expression coming over his face, one hand raised with his thumb up.
"Ohhh!" Nick said with an upward inflection, deducing quite wrongly, what their plans might be. Well, at least Kurt's plans. Blaine merely shrugged at his friends with a lecherous smile, entirely in accord with their assumptions. He still had no idea that Kurt wasn't on the same page as he was, assuming his boyfriend had shut them down so efficiently because he wanted some alone time with him.
"Well then…Um. Wes also said you left your phone at his house. We can swing by now and pick it up if you like. You can call us whenever you're …um… ready for some company. We'd like a chance to get to know Kurt. So, yeah. Um. Have fun." They backed out of the door awkwardly and closed it gently, trying to act like this sort of thing happened all the time, but they were all aware it didn't. Neither of them had steady girlfriends yet, since they attended an all boy's school, and hooking up with girls was difficult, to say the least. They had always teased Blaine that he'd had an unfair advantage over them because he was gay, but Kurt even didn't go to Dalton. How had they gotten so close so quickly? Until now Blaine wasn't a 'hop into bed with a stranger' kind of guy. God knows, he had been propositioned by more than one guy at Dalton, before and he'd never accepted any of them.
They heard Jeff's voice carry through the closed door. "God, why couldn't I be gay and be getting a blow job?" Jeff wailed to Nick as they went down the hallway. " Ow" They heard him yelp in response to another whack from Nick. "Be cool, man!" Nick hissed at him.
Kurt couldn't help chuckling with Blaine, though he was still shocked at how accepting Blaine's friends were of two boys caught in bed together. "I think I like your friends, even if they did scare me half to death. They really don't care that we're gay?" Kurt asked, with anxiety still in his eyes.
Blaine felt a pang at Kurt's apprehension, and tried to calm him. "Nope, really they don't. They love me anyway, and I love them, even if Jeff can be oblivious, and Nick is much too smart for his own good." Blaine rolled back toward his boyfriend, but as soon as he kissed him he could tell the mood was spoiled by the boys' interruption. He decided to just hold Kurt for a while, grateful they were back home and safe.
Blaine's knew it was his responsibility to help Kurt to learn about a whole new world, even more strange than when he had appeared in Kurt's time.
~ o _ o ~
Coming soon, Moments In Time, the sequel to A Feeling I Can't Hide, with Blaine helping Kurt learn how to adjust to being a stranger in a whole new world.