Now that they are boyfriends, now that the big secrets are out, Kurt is more forthcoming with his past and his inner thoughts with Blaine. He lets the story out in pieces, between make outs, or during cuddling, or after a movie ends and they sit on his couch.
It's the story of how Kurt took the fear afforded him after he broke a jock's fingers in defense – an action he hated himself for – and spun into an identity. He went off the end of freshman year with rumors shrouding his steps, hid away during the summer, and came back sophomore year a different person. No longer a little budding fashionista but a rough-edged punk.
"I didn't have to come up with any stories," Kurt says, nuzzling up under Blaine's chin, lying atop the other boy like a sloth. "They made them up for me. All I had to do was make a public disturbance every so often to keep up the image. Stuff that gets you detention, but nothing more. Don't need anything to get in the away of going to college."
College, that was a conversation for another day.
"What kind of things did you do?" Blaine asks tilting his head down to press his nose into Kurt's hair.
Kurt snorts. "Be belligerent in class. Knock slushies out of people's hands. Walk through the hallway and not care who I knocked into. I destroyed Jacob Ben Israel's camera once. He deserved it though. He was taking upshots of girl's skirts... I benefited a lot from that. He labeled me a public menace on his blog."
Blaine wraps his arms a little tighter around Kurt. That explained a lot.
"I avoided doing stuff to people…"
Blaine feels Kurt's chest hitch in a sigh even as he doesn't here it.
"People?" Blaine prompts.
"People who had been like me."
…
He slides a hand through Kurt's amongst the crowd. He interlacing their fingers as Kurt looks at him. Blaine squeezes reassuringly.
Kurt tugs his hand away. "Not at school," he says under his breath. He looks away.
Blaine curls his fingers in, feeling the absence in his own palm.
…
Blaine just explodes with it: "I don't our relationship to be in the closet. I don't want to be in the closet."
Kurt's brow wrinkles in consternation. "Um, okay. We're not though."
"We sort of are," Blaine says.
"We've labeled it. Mercedes – are one mutual friend – knows. My dad knows. Your parents know. How is that in the closet?... Is this about that thing at school? The handholding. Because I told you I'm not okay with PDA at school."
"I know. I know," Blaine quickly assures. "And I understand why you pulled away. I crossed a limit you had set. But… but it feels awfully like keeping a secret."
"It's about being safe."
"And I appreciate that. But there's a difference between being safe and acting like it's a dirty little secret."
"I'm assuming there is a point to this?"
"I want to tell the glee club about us," Blaine says.
Kurt cocks his head. "You haven't yet?"
Blaine shakes his head. "I've kept most of what's happened between us, between us. Obviously they know we're friends. And Puck seemed to know I had a thing for you before I could admit it to myself."
"Puck?" Kurt asks. "Did he give you shit about it?"
"No," Blaine says.
Kurt thinks on this. "I guess he sorta stopped such a jackass after joining that glee club. He used to a problem."
"For you?" Blaine asks. Puck sure had his rough edges, but he seemed until good-hearted under them. And he was very protective of his glee mates.
"He was never the worst," Kurt says with a shrug. "He was more of a general bully. He didn't so much target me in particular, just all losers." Kurt shakes his head as if shaking off the veil of an old memory.
"So?" Blaine prompts, heralding back to his original concern.
"I don't want you to tell them," Kurt says.
"Why not?" Blaine says with careful apathy.
Kurt shrugs one shoulder with his arms still crossed. "Why is it any of their business?"
"They're my friends."
"So?" Kurt challenges.
"So?" Blaine echoes back. "They're my friends. They'd be happy for me."
Kurt's quiet for a long stretch. Blaine waits for him.
Kurt starts his words off slowly. "Well, you asked me my opinion on this, and I think we should keep going with keeping what's between us, between us."
…
It had been their first, well, tiff as a couple. They had more than one rip roaring fights as friends and not-quite-friends. This was the first time they dove out of the honeymoon-esque phase of their new relationship.
It was tiny. Nothing. A concession Blaine could live with, for now.
…
Kurt has Blaine's collar pulled askew as he works on what will probably be a very impressive hickey on the curve between Blaine's neck and shoulder. Kurt's straddling Blaine under the secret bleachers, though thankfully up on his knees. There is no contact between their laps, which would definitely be too much to handle, especially during lunch period.
"Kurt," Blaine manages gasp out raspy, placing his hands on Kurt's trim waist. "We need to cool down." Even with no direct contact between their laps, this was still pretty intense.
Kurt unlatches and sits back. He regularly skips class, so what's it matter to him if Blaine misses to.
"Did I get you all hot and bothered?" Kurt teases, voice steady, though going a little pink as he says it.
"Yes," Blaine says, now that Kurt is far enough away that he can actually breathe right.
Kurt gets up properly and moves to sit next to Blaine, hip-to-hip. "How long until you run away to class?"
Blaine checks his phone. "Seven minutes."
"Hmm." Kurt leans his head down on Blaine's shoulder. "What if I fell asleep on you…would you still go to class?"
"Are you going to fall asleep on me in six minutes?" Blaine challenges.
"I could pretend." Kurt drops his eyes close and makes a fake snore.
Blaine pokes Kurt in the side, and Kurt's eyes peak back open. Blaine says, "Hey, I have something to ask you?"
"Yeah?"
"The glee club… our sectionals competitions are coming up soon…"
"You want me to watch your glee club compete?"
"Yeah. Will you?"
"… I'll think about it," Kurt says, which Blaine takes as Kurt being too cool to outright agree.
They sit the rest of the fleeting minutes quietly. Blaine draws patterns on the top of Kurt's denim-covered thigh with his fingertip, and Kurt watches him. A minute to go (he's calculated in having the passing period to get to class), and Blaine's phone beeps out a warning. Kurt lifts his head. He hadn't fallen asleep.
Blaine stands with regret. This is the only place on school grounds that Kurt acted like he and Blaine were a couple.
Lifting his bag onto his shoulder, he says, "Time for class." He feels a little stupid.
"Dork!" Kurt calls after him, but it is not ill-willed.
…
Kurt catches him up the arm in the hallway. "I have a surprise for you," he whispers. When Blaine turns to look at him, Kurt is positively glowing.
"Yeah?"
Kurt jerks his head and leads Blaine into an empty classroom. Kurt cozies up to Blaine real quick, wrapping his arms around Blaine's back. He pecks Blaine on the lips.
Blaine looks up at the planet diorama hanging down from the ceiling than back to Kurt. "This is nice," he says.
"This isn't the surprise," Kurt says. He rubs his hands up and down Blaine's spine, making Blaine shiver.
"What is?" he asks. He pecks Kurt back slantways, lips lingering a bit longer over his lip ring.
Kurt tongue darts out over the piercing. "Is that a kink for you?"
Blaine feels hot, and nods his head.
"I've noticed," Kurt says with a wink.
Blaine reaches a thumb up and brushes it over the bar in Kurt's eyebrow. "They look good on you."
Kurt tilts his head up. "Admire away then, Anderson."
"I always do," Blaine says.
"Okay, your surprise…"
"Yes, yes. I want to hear about this," Blaine says with a smile.
"Well, I know you've been kind of bummed about us staying so private about our relationship around school, so I thought of a way to make it up to you," Kurt says.
"Oh?"
Kurt is orcastrating a surprise for him because he realized Blaine had been down. That is so sweet.
"I'm going to take you out on a date," Kurt says. His smile grows to make lines crinkle around his eyes. "Our first real date… I've got it all planned. Of course, that's for me to know and you to find out when we get there."
"Wow, Kurt."
"You like it?"
"I love it," Blaine says. "This is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. When is it?"
"Today, after school."
"I have glee practice today," Blaine says.
"I know," Kurt says with an eye roll. "I calculated that in. After glee. That ends at four-thirty."
Blaine grimaces. Something pleasant is already going down the drain. "We're having a double long practice because sectionals is this weekend."
"Ditch," Kurt says like it's the simplest solution.
"I can't," Blaine says.
Kurt lets go of Blaine and steps back. Blaine wants to chase after him, reenter into that hold.
"Sectionals is this weekend," Blaine tries to emphasize. "I'm part of the team. I made a commitment. Can't I get a rain check?"
Kurt crosses his arms, but looks more distressed than angry. "It has to be tonight," he says.
"Maybe after?" Blaine proposes.
"What time do you get done?" Kurt mutters, obviously not pleased with the proceedings.
Blaine's desperate to make this work. "Seven. Seven-thirty? Oh, then Rachel's dads are hosting this glee club dinner thing after. Rachel got Mr. Schue to make it a requirement, but I'm sure I can just make a polite appearance and get out of there by eight."
Kurt starts to chew on his thumbnail, eyes darting as his mind calculates. "That's too late," he says.
"I know," Blaine says, thinking Kurt's referring to that being only a few hours short of their respective curfews. "I'm sorry. We can reschedule?"
"No. You don't understand," Kurt says, all irritated. "I planned for tonight." He shakes his head, a mix of pink and brown bangs falling into his eyes. "Really, can't you ditch after 4:30? Five, even. For me?"
"I wish I could," Blaine says. Part of his heart yearns to say yes, to agree, but he knows he never would. New Directions needs him. It was a responsibility and obligation.
"But you won't," Kurt says.
"I can't."
Kurt looks more sad than mad, but that makes it more complicated. If Kurt was outright mad that Blaine had another commitment with his time… but instead he looked like his heart had been ripped out.
"We can do it next week," Blaine says, trying to salve the wound. "I promise, I'll love it as much then. And Sectionals will be over, so I'll have plenty of time."
Kurt nods. The bell rings, a warning for class. Kurt starts towards the classroom door. Blaine catches him by the arm.
"Kurt…," Blaine starts. He needs to make sure everything is okay. He wants to know however everything tumbled so quickly downhill when it started out so good.
"Forget it," Kurt whispers, and tugs easily away. Blaine's not sure what exactly Kurt's asking him to forget.
…
Kurt skips French the next day. Blaine finds Mercedes in the hall between classes and asks if she's seen Kurt today.
"You haven't?" she questions. It's Blaine then who is being avoided.
He expects Kurt not to be at lunch either, and have to seek him out under the bleachers, but when he walks into the cafeteria, there Kurt is, at a table by himself.
Blaine sits down next to him right away, skipping the lunch line altogether.
"You weren't in French."
"I didn't feel like French," Kurt says flippantly.
"Okay."
"…You want something?"
"Kurt… are you okay?"
"Sure," Kurt says.
Blaine reaches for Kurt's hand on the tabletop, but pulls back before they make contact. Not at school. With the way Kurt's staring at Blaine's hand now, it must have been the right call.
"About yesterday," Blaine starts.
"Forget it," Kurt says with the shake of his head. "It's nothing."
"Well, then…" It is so much harder for Blaine to talk to Kurt now, now that they have opened themselves up to each other so much more. Maybe he's more afraid of the fallout if he pushes to hard. Maybe he's more afraid of getting wounded. Maybe they both are.
"Sectionals is tomorrow," Blaine says.
"Oh?"
"Remember I asked you if you would come?" Blaine prompts.
Kurt takes a bite of his apple. "Yeah," he answers after he swallows. Blaine's too tense to push for more than monosyllabic replies.
"Well…" he pulls a slip of paper out of his pocket. "Here is the address, and the time. The glee club is going together on bus, but it's only at a convention center like twenty minutes away."
Kurt puts a single finger on the piece of paper and slides it over to himself. He stars down at Blaine's loopy writing.
"Okay?" Blaine asks.
"Okay."
Blaine feels like he can breathe easier.
"Why don't you go sit with your glee club," Kurt says, finally forming a sentence. "Sectionals is tomorrow, after all."
"Yeah. Good idea." He wishes he weren't in school so he could lean over and kiss Kurt on the cheek.
…
Fresh off the adrenaline of performing, his fingers are shaking as he dials Kurt's number.
"Hey!" his breathe is catching. "Sorry I couldn't call before. It's been crazy. I thought I'd see you in the lobby. Did you see us?"
"Huh?" comes Kurt's questioning tone.
"On stage?" Blaine says. Performing had always been a high for him, but New Directions was more of a triathlon than Dalton had ever been. "You weren't in the bathroom, were you?" he teases.
"I'm not there," Kurt says.
Blaine laughs but he's feels only the wrong kind of funny. "What?"
"I'm not there. I'm at work."
And it's true. If Blaine strains his ears, he can hear mechanical tools in the background of the call.
"You said you were coming," Blaine says, his dragged down.
"I never said that," Kurt corrects. Blaine quickly rewinds his memories, and it's true. Kurt never really said he was coming, but never said he wasn't. He had lead Blaine to believe…
Blaine felt like he was drowning. His chest burned like from lack of air. His head felt sluggish as he struggled to keep up with this turn of events.
"This was really important to me," Blaine says with his barely there voice.
"The date was important to me," Kurt retorts.
"Was this," Blaine says, "Was this revenge?"
His accusation hangs there, until Kurt replies coldly. "Blaine, I have customer. I can't talk right now." Then Kurt hands up on him.
Blaine's hands are shaking for a completely different reason now.
Rachel grabs his arm. "They're calling us back for the judging already! I think we won." She does a little happy dance. He wishes he could that elated.
He goes back out onto the stage with New Directions, just going with the tide. They win first place. Everyone is jumping around him, but how can Blaine celebrate when his heart is breaking.
Aki – NOOOOooooo. KLaine, Why!
Excuse that outburst. My goal was to have klaine have relationship strife over something that was not real or perceived infidelity, so, you know, all of the relationship problems that Glee doesn't typically explore.