Chapter 10

Acquaint

"Bye, Babe."

"Bye," Blaine says with a kiss to Elliott's lips before the other man is out of the door, Blaine pushing it closed behind him, grabbing his phone form the coffee table in the next second. "Kurt, hi. Yeah, he's gone. No. Yeah. Yeah Dani promised to help him study for an exam. … Sure. Yes. … That's the plan. … Okay. See you in a bit."

A weirdly timid nervousness settles in Blaine's stomach as soon as he has hung up.

And it does not leave until Kurt is standing with him in his living room four and a half hours later, the both of them waiting.

For the keys to jingle.

For the lock to turn.

For the hinges to emit that slight creaking sound they do, no matter how thoroughly you oil them.

"Kurt?" Elliott asks surprised as he finds the two standing there, clearly just having jumped up off the couch. "What's going on?" And Elliott hates the way his stomach is twisting with dread.

"We need to talk to you," Blaine starts, taking a step closer to Elliott.

But Elliott is quicker, keeps his distance as he turns once and circles the coffee table to sit down on the old recliner opposite the couch which Kurt is still standing in front of, looking flustered.

Elliott does not like it, does not like all this one bit. Hates even where his mind is trying to make him believe this must be going, because he so SO is 'not on board with it', but knows he has no choice either, is helpless.

"Babe … ."

"Blaine, don't. I … just don't. I know."

"What do you know?" Blaine asks, looking equal parts worried and determined.

"You and Kurt … ."

"Are friends."

Elliott almost snorts. But the tears rising inside him push the sound back down his throat before it is even fully formed.

"Elliott," Kurt steps in now. "We are just friends, Blaine and I. I promise."

Elliott wants to believe Kurt, is actually quite sure now catching Kurt's gaze that the boy before him actually does believe his own words. And not for the first time Elliott looks at Kurt wondering, worrying what this boy knows about love. What he thinks he knows rather.

And with one glance at Blaine he knows that Blaine too does not know love very well, and maybe that is why, '… why you two belong together, Elliott thinks with a pang in his chest, cutting of his air in that moment. He struggles for the next word, the name, so familiar, the man it belonging to feeling so foreign to him right now, "… Blaine," 'Love is not what you think it is. And love is not cruel and hard and selfish either, … like I would be to … to keep, to stand, to keep standing …,' Elliott thinks, but instead he says, "This doesn't feel right."

But before he can go on to explain Kurt steps in, new determination painted clear as day all over his features, "Elliott, I have no romantic feelings for Blaine. I promise you that. I just …, whatever you think you are seeing between us, I … Blaine," Kurt takes a deep breath then rushes the words out, "I used to cut, and Blaine told my dad and made me face it, and … without him, I don't know where I would be today. You are right, I do love him for that, as a friend, I do deeply deeply love him. And Elliott, he loves you. And why wouldn't he, you are amazing. I wish I had one ounce of your presence."

"Kurt," Blaine rushes to say then, "Elliott knows, … about the cutting."

"Oh," is all Kurt replies, sinking his head, hands starting to wrestle with each other again as the boy pales visibly.

But this time it is Elliott stepping closer, reaching over to calm. And when Kurt looks up at his touch, shy, and hurt, and so unsure, Elliott begins to understand. 'It's not that you don't love Blaine in that way. You just don't know love yet … at all.' And the blow of that realization sets a crack into Elliott's heart, pierced and prodded with that worried, wide-eyed, almost hollow look of Kurt's.

That is when Elliott knows that there is space for him here, right now, between these two young man figuring out still who they are, but '…if, no, when, you get better … know yourselves better, there won't be any space left for me, no space at all.'

And so Elliott knows, knows he has to decide. Decide whether being a place holder is what he wants. Whether Blaine and he, what they have is worth, not dragging on, no, but savoring every last bite and drop of. Of what they have for as long as they can have it.

As his eyes wander over to Blaine's, find all that warmth there, in one single glance's connection … the answer is easy, easily crystal clear.

And with a soft-edged smile and squeezing Kurt's hands softly in his, the other finding one of Blaine's hands Elliott says, "I believe you." Because he does, he does really think that they do mean what they are saying, these two people standing here with him who will change '… so much, so fast' in the time to come.