"Now this is adorable," Kurt says with a teasing smirk, picking up Blaine's notebook to examine Blaine's doodles.
Blaine groans in minor embarrassment. However, he just made out with Kurt. He'd have a hard time being upset by most anything.
Kurt's lying on his stomach, cross-wise on Blaine's bed. Blaine's lying likewise. He puts his arm loose around Kurt's waist. He leans up and brushes a kiss on the skin behind Kurt's ear. A shiver runs down Kurt's spine.
Blaine kisses again. Kurt makes a noise in the back of his throat and ducks his head down, exposing more of his neck. Blaine takes this as a signal, a chance to explore more, until he's stopped by the collar of Kurt's shirt.
Kurt huffs through his nose, shifts on the bed so he's on his side, facing Blaine.
"That's one way to distract me from your middle-school hearts," he says.
Blaine can't resist. Closes the space between their faces, kisses Kurt's smile. Kurt obliges him for a minute, kissing back.
Until he starts to laugh. "You can't keep your lips off me," Kurt says.
"I've been wanting to do this for so long," Blaine admits. This isn't a secret. He starts to move in again, but is stilled by Kurt's fingers pressed to his mouth. This is hardly a bad fate.
Kurt drops his hand, his fingertips dragging lightly down Blaine already-sensitive-from-kissing-so-much lips.
"We should talk," Kurt says, usually dreadful words, but they don't sound so dreadful from him. "If we're going to do this… continue to do this… we should define it."
Blaine blinks, thinks for half a second, and says, his simple answer, "Boyfriends."
"That easy?"
"Why does it have to be complicated?" Blaine replies. Every step until this point had been had been hard-navigated and tricky. There had been plenty of twisted ankles, trips, and bruised knees. Now that they arrived, why did it have to be trouble?
"I guess it doesn't…" Kurt blinks his eyes down, runs a finger over the pattern of Blaine's quilt, blinks up. "I suppose I should say though, I'm not really comfortable being all PDA or anything at school, given…" he sighs, doesn't finish.
"It's not a safe environment," Blaine says. "I get it. I really do. Of all people."
Kurt presses his hand to Blaine's neck, kisses Blaine briefly, a peck really, but every touch of Kurt's lips is precious. "Thank you for understanding."
Maybe Blaine's selfish, but now that he's tasted Kurt's lips, has gotten to grip his sides, has gotten to hold him, share him, he doesn't want to stop. He wants more. To drink in more. But Kurt rolls a little farther up on his elbow.
"I probably should be headed home," Kurt says.
"Before you go..." Blaine gets his phone out. "Can I actually get your phone number?"
The tip of Kurt's tongue sticks out between his teeth as he types his number into Blaine's phone. Blaine's had that tongue in his mouth.
"Here." Kurt hands the phone back over. "Just text me sometime saying it's you and I'll add your number to my phone then.
"You realize I'll literally be texting you, at the most, five minutes after you leave."
Kurt smiles, and its less smirk and more tentative. "I really do have to go." Kurt manages to get off the bed gracefully. Blaine scrambles after him.
"I'll walk you out."
Blaine's mom is reading (or pretending to read) a novel in the living room. Blaine expects her to say something as they pass to the front door, but she doesn't. Blaine makes sure the front door is unlocked and then leads Kurt outside, down the front walk, to where Kurt's car is parked along the curb. It's well past dusk.
Kurt stands by the driver's door, shifting unsure. "Well, um…" he starts.
Blaine moves in, hugs him, whispers in his ear, "See you at school."
Kurt nods, says, "Yeah," gets into his car. The engine revs and Blaine steps farther up the curb. He can't see too well through the glass of Kurt's car window in the dark, but he holds up a hand anyway. He thinks he makes out Kurt doing the same.
Back in the house, Mom's book has been discarded. "So that's Kurt," she says, and Blaine can just hear the unsaid words she has pinched behind her teeth.
"You shouldn't be so judgmental, Mom," he says back.
"I said nothing," she replies, voice lofty.
"You were thinking it."
"What I was thinking was… are you sure you're not dating him?" It was a question that wasn't a question. His mom knew.
"Um," is all Blaine states. Mom just waits. "Well, that relationship status might've just changed this evening…"
Mom puts on her smug 'your momma knows everything' face.
"Tell me one thing, Blaine. Is he nice?"
Nice was never a word Blaine would use to describe Kurt. But nice was surface-level. Cruel people could appear nice.
"He's abrasive," Blaine answers. "But he's good, where it counts."
…
From Blaine: Told you I'd text you five minutes after you left.
From Blaine: I know you're probably still driving, but I can't help by wonder… What changed your mind?
From Kurt: I was still driving. Don't be clingy ;)
From Kurt: I told you. It was about me. I needed the time to figure it out. And it turned out that time was just a few days.
From Blaine: I know it's clingy, but I miss you already.
From Kurt: I know it's clingy and hypocritical, but I miss you too.
From Blaine: I don't think you realize how much I like you.
There's a long stretch, longer than the others, before Kurt replies.
From Kurt: I think I'm going to go to bed early. I'm kinda emotionally exhausted from this week.
From Blaine: No problem. Sweet dreams.
From Kurt: You just want me to dream about you.
From Blaine: Well, I know I'll be dreaming about you…
From Kurt: Goodnight, bowtie
Blaine crafts four different responses before texting back, simply, Goodnight.
…
Blaine mopes around his house most of Saturday. Shortly after noon, he texts Kurt: Can I see you today
Fifteen minutes or so later, Blaine gets a response. I'm working.
He debates the idea back and forth in his head like the idea is a tennis ball and his mind the tennis match. It's one in the afternoon when Blaine finds his mother and asks if he can borrow her car.
"Are you going to see Kurt?" She still says 'Kurt' with a strange edge to it.
"Something like that," Blaine replies.
"Be back for dinner," she tells him, waving Blaine off.
He gets her keys from the basket by the door, checks that he has his wallet and cell in his pockets, and drives.
Blaine parks outside Hummel Tire and Lube, and walks in the building to find Kurt working behind the front counter, finishing up a transaction with a customer. Blaine waits in line. Once Kurt hands his current customer, an older lady, her receipt, he finally spots Blaine.
"What're you doing here?" Kurt says.
"My mom's car… it's making a noise," Blaine says, the lie bold-faced and obvious.
"You mom's car is making a noise?" Kurt asks with overt skepticism, but a little amazed.
Blaine props his elbows down on the counter. "Why would I lie about something like that?"
"I can think of a reason," Kurt says, but he's smiling. He leans back, crosses his arms in a fake foreboding. "What kind of noise?"
Blaine clears his throat. "A clang – king?"
"A clanging or a clanking?"
"Uh, both," Blaine says.
Kurt steps back, knocks on his dad's office door, and shout back to him, "Hey, Dad, I'm going to go listen to a noise a customer's car is making in the parking lot."
Blaine hears Burt's muffled "Okay" in response.
"Lead the way," Kurt says.
Blaine takes Kurt out the parking lot where his mother's car is parked. He gets in the front seat as Kurt stands outside. He revs on the car and lowers the window.
"Sounds fine," Kurt says.
"Maybe you have to be in here to hear it," Blaine replies.
Kurt rounds the car and gets in the passenger's seat, pulling the door shut behind him. "Oh, yes," he says, "A very subtle clanging noise."
Blaine reaches across the car and wraps his fingers over Kurt's hand.
"Thanks for coming to see me," Kurt says.
"The pleasure's all mine," Blaine replies.
Kurt snorts. "Who says that?" He doesn't wait for an answer. He just shakes his head and leans over the center console for a kiss. Blaine let's Kurt lead it, and it's miserably short.
"I really do have to work though," Kurt says. "The only way I can make sure my dad doesn't overwork himself is for me to be here to force him not to."
"I understand," Blaine says. How could the world ever overlook how much Kurt cares? It only took Blaine a few encounters with the young man to realize how much passion he held inside his skin. He wasn't the disaffected youth he let them think he was.
…
Sunday they survived apart through running text commentary on their day. On Monday, Blaine slips through the crowd so he can walk next to Kurt, letting the back of his hand brush against Kurt's. Kurt catches his gaze, gives a one-sided grin that's incredibly rich to look at.
Mercedes eyes them hard in the hallway. "Finally," she tells them, her only commentary. "But I really thought Blaine would lose the moony-eyes when you to were finally getting it on."
…
There was something different about kissing Kurt than anyone else Blaine's ever kissed before. There haven't been a lot, but Dalton had more than a few out and open-minded young men. Blaine had been well-liked and, dare he say it, popular amongst the student population there. He's had the opportunity to kiss a few boys. He went on a few dates as well, but never went too far with any of them, never got serious. At Dalton, Blaine had still been healing.
But kissing Kurt… it blew everything other kissing experience in Blaine's backlog out of the water. Probably because it's Kurt, who Blaine has wanted so much, who he cares for so much. As inexperienced kisser he is, Kurt wants Blaine too, in a way none of the boys at Dalton did. No fault to them, but Kurt and he shared something deeper.
Blaine also has to admit, Kurt's lip ring adds an interesting twist to the experience.
The kissing, of course, is new and exciting. It, however, is not the only type of intimacy they engage in. Like now, they were cuddled together on the couch after wearing themselves out from making out.
"I told my dad about us," Kurt says, on one such occasion.
"How'd that go?" Blaine asks. He trails his fingers down Kurt's arm.
"The other night at dinner I told him I had to talk to him about something and he said 'yeah' and I said 'you know that Blaine guy?' and he looked me right in the eye, completely serious and deadpan, and said, 'you're dating.'"
Blaine laughs. "Then what happened?"
"Well, because I'm petulant, I said 'no we're not. God.' Then he just gave me this look, like 'really, bitch.' Which is not something he would ever say or probably even think, but it was so clear in his face."
"Did you admit it then?"
"Of course not…," Kurt says, and Blaine can hear the eye roll in his voice. "I finished dinner in stubborn silence then stomped off to my room."
"So he doesn't know?" Blaine questions with moderate confusion.
"I'm not finished the story, Blaine."
"Sorry, please continue."
"Later that night, I crept downstairs. Found my dad lounging in front of the TV in his armchair. I said 'hey dad' and he said 'yes, buddy?' That's what he used to call me all the time when I was kid. It's rare now. I kinda liked hearing it again."
Blaine kisses the top of Kurt's head, that's under his chin. Kurt is languid and starfish-like on top of him. "That's cute."
"Shut up," Kurt says, like he's embarrassed. He continues regardless. "Anyway, I said to him, 'Blaine and I are dating.' And he said, like all fake surprised, 'oh, really now?' I nodded, even though I was sort of behind him in the doorway so he couldn't really see me. He got up from his chair, and he came up to me. And he hugged me. When he was done hugging, he held me by the shoulders, looking at me, and said 'you're growing up, aren't you?' And I didn't know what to say to that, because I don't feel grown up, but at the same time I feel too old already."
"You're so lucky, Kurt," Blaine says. "You're dad's awesome."
Kurt quiet and contemplative for a moment before saying, "I guess he is. But admitting that makes me wish I had been a better son. Not like some straight douche jock or anything, probably what he was expecting when I was born. But like, the last few years, make him come to a few less parent-teacher conferences. Make him not worry so much about me."
"Um, Kurt, I'm not an expert, but I'm sure most parents worry about their kids. Especially the awesome ones."
A new voice, gruffer than either of theirs, enters the conversation, "He's right."
They both jerk upright from where they were lounging on top of each other on the couch in Kurt's living room. Burt is still in his coat, must have just come in from outside not long ago.
"How long have you been eavesdropping?" Kurt asks, a touch of snide covering his shy.
"It's my house. I can listen to whatever I want," Burt says, crossing the room, stopping behind the back of the couch. "And no matter how grown up you get, no matter if you're getting trouble or have a spotless record, I'm going to worry about you, buddy." He places a broad hand atop Kurt's head. Kurt stares up, child-like, and Blaine can only imagine him, a desperate, closeted kid like Blaine had been (and sometimes still feels like).
"Because you're my kid, and I love you." Burt ruffles Kurt hair, then walks off to the kitchen. Kurt hisses like a cat, hands flying to his hair although it had already been ruffled from previous activities before Kurt and Blaine had started cuddling.
"You staying for dinner, Blaine?" Burt calls from the other room.
Blaine looks to Kurt to see if the offer is approved. Kurt just nods.
"Yes, sir!" Blaine calls back.
aki - if this chapter didn't make you die of cuteness, I did not do my job...