Oh, you know where I got the title from! (It's also a friend's new favorite word!) Haha, Yay Chris Colfer making up new words as if he's Shakespeare.

Sorry so long between chapters! Way too over-booked… Bllllllgh

I swear I'll be better. I've had tons of plans laid out for these characters almost since the beginning, so I just have to find time to write more often!

Oh yeah, and I had to change the date of Regionals. My timeframes stopped making sense, now that so much is happening between Valentine's Day and Regionals. It was becoming the longest month EVER. Regionals now takes place on April 23. As does the press opening of Funny Girl.

(Disclaimer: Well gosh, it's a fan fiction website. I'm only a fan of what other people have created, really.)

Chapter 11: Flatterments

A text suddenly lit up his phone and gave Kurt the excuse he needed to look away from the history paper he was finishing up. It was from Mercedes.

Hey Kurt, you back at school already?

-Safe and sound and editing stupid paper.

Why stupid?

-Nah just annoying final-stage prfreading of a 10-pg ppr due 2mrrw.

Kurt you have the cutest abbreviations. And you know you have an iPhone & can use as many characters as you want!

-Hahaha. I tell Carole that! She has one too. But she ALWAYS ends her texts with LOL. And she MEANS lots of love!

ROFL

-Exactly. I tell her that since LOL is universally understood by EVERYONE as not even laughing out loud anymore, but exactly equivalent to writing "hahaha" you can't just use it to mean whatever you want!

Why doesn't she do like l.o.l. or something to make it diff? Or teach her about less than 3!

-Wld b smart. But this is funnier. I get texts from her like "It was so great seeing you this weekend, Kurt. You're wonderful. LOL"

OMG LOL for real.

-This is why I don't make her change it. It's too funny. So: BTW, what's up? Did u have that date today?

It was awesome. We watched his friend's basketball game and then just hung out all afternoon.

-What is this, your 3rd or 4th date?

Number 4.

-Kisses?

Sure…

-Oh come ON, Cedes! Spill! Passionate kisses this time or is he still doing that whole chaste thing?

Weeellll… I wouldn't call it chaste.

-Girl, you'd better start acting like you have an iPhone and stop with the cryptic msgs!

Let's just say that he didn't wait until he dropped me off to give me a simple goodnight kiss this time.

He kind of... started the kissing a bit earlier than that.

More like, right after he picked me up.

-Yay! That's kind of hot. I mean you sound like you didn't quite object.

I TOLD you I've been waiting for him to step up.

-Yeah I know but in terms of whether he was awkward or cool or if you're compatible or not, etc.

OH, yeah with the whole compatible thing. Yup. I'd say.

-Yay

-Um… that's it for details?

-M! Seriously. They don't say we're attached at the ear for nothing. You had been getting worried about this. Really OK? All good?

Boy, hold your horses! I was washing the dishes. My turn tonight. OK, so, he's a real good kisser…

And he is definitely the sweetest thing.

So, it's like, he's all polite & nice, kind of kissing as if it's constantly asking my permission?

Like, the kisses are sweet, soft, tentative, u know?

I must've kinda gave permission, def didn't shy away or want to stop I guess, cuz it got kinda more hot.

-Oooh, Really? Keep spilling. What do u mean by hot?

Not SO hot. I'm a good girl, Kurt! Heehee

Just, he kissed more and wasn't so tentative. At ALL. Felt like this is all he ever wants to do or something. I'm bad at describing!

Just, u know. We were good together. Real good. We kinda match each others lips. Make sense? All good for sure.

-Yay

-So his personality, is he still as interesting as you thought?

Kurt, this guy is so awesome. He writes songs, he plays like 7 instruments, he's into jazz and blues and soul and funk and still can play pop like nobody's business.

You should hear the songs he writes. He has so much heart, Kurt. And brilliant, I don't know how a person writes a song w so much insight and still sounds so pretty, and like, totally danceable.

-Did you try writing a song with him yet?

Oh, no Kurt. He's so much better than me.

-Mercedes! Don't be stupid. You're a great songwriter! You could really have a gift for it. You should do more.

OK but not with him unless I know I'm really good enough.

-Seriously, M. You are. Believe it. You're really, really good.

Oh guess what? Our Gregers is in love.

-G.G.?

Haha. Yeah. I don't think the girl knows it yet! He is so funny. Just met her. Said he knew as soon as she said her name.

-haha! What? Funny! Bet he meant that he loved her voice or something. Gotta tell you, the sound of Blaine's voice alone did something to me even the first time I heard him speak.

Maybe. It was all Peter said. "He knew as soon as she said her name."

-What is it about a voice that makes you melt? You know? Really Blaine can be talking about anything, even calculus & my knees go week cuz it's so beautiful.

-ANYWAY! *headshake So what IS this girl's name that is so magical it makes our favorite barista fall for her because of it?

Nina.

-Nina. Huh.

I guess we'll meet her soon.

-Hope so. I can't wait to hear her say her name! lolz

You know, his college drama club is putting on the musical "Bare."

-I haven't seen that. I'll look it up. What's it about?

IDK much, I guess I'll look it up 2. Peter says it's kind of bold to do it? I think it's Catholic school kids struggling with issues?

Anyway, Rachel is going to watch a rehearsal of it on Fri cuz she's working w 1 of the guys in it now...

And that's what I wanted to tell you about…

-OMG Cedes, I'm reading about it right now. If you don't want spoilers I won't tell, but the ending is kind of the point of it. It's… Topical. Sad. Makes a big point.

IDK if I'll go see it. Peter's not in it or anything. I've never gone to any of the college shows.

-Why's Rachel involved?

She's doing "Funny Girl" at the MTG.

-Monroe Theater Group?

Yeah, next month I guess. The guy playing the lead in that goes to Peter's school and has the lead in "Bare" too. She's helping him or something.

-Wait so what's the scoop here? I'm lost.

It's just that, she's going to the rehearsal for that guy, but she's going with Karofsky.

-Oh. Wow.

SOOoo, Artie told her that he doesn't trust K at ALL, so insisted on going with her 2.

He and Brittany are going with them since R insisted on going with K and insisted that he's OK now.

-I doubt that.

Exactly.

-So wait, why is she going with him?

-OH! Never mind! I just remembered. Blaine told me he's doing community theatre. I bet he's in the show with Rachel.

That's the gist of it.

-Oh, phew! I just realized after I hit send, that I wasn't supposed to say anything. Not that I'd keep anything from you, M!

-But I didn't think before I just blurted that out. Yikes. It's too hard to remember what you are and aren't "supposed" to talk about! Grrrr It's just silly.

-As long as ppl at McKinley don't know. Or at least as long as we're not the ones to "out" him for his musical theatre tendencies!

Rachel's keeping us silent about it. She says he's being nice now because of it.

-Well, the thing is, I'm not there so I can't tell, but it sounds like he's come to grips with something. Or he's at least laying low and maybe that means he's figuring stuff out…

-But still I think he's volatile, you know? I'm with Artie. I wouldn't trust him yet.

-I'm glad Artie is smart. And with Britt going 2, they'll all b just a group and it shld be fine.

AAAAAND==== drumroll - Santana.

-Hmmmmm.

She overheard Britt and A & invited self along.

-Iiiiinteresting.

Tell me! Typical Santana, all jealous, but, U know, her actually going w them to this = Interesting.

-Well, keep me posted. I hope Rach knows what she's doing befriending K.

I'll ask Artie to report.

-Cool. Hey, I gotta go, M! Thanks for all the scoop!

Any day, babe. Every day.

-Have a good one!

He was opening the door as he typed the last text, since a knock was the reason he had to go in the first place.

"I present you with…" Blaine pulled two styrofoam plates out from behind his back, "dinner! I missed you tonight and figured that you forgot about dinner again, studying too hard, you silly." With the name "silly," he was already kissing Kurt on the cheek, and Kurt took the plates out of his hands to find a place for them so that he could manage a proper kiss. One needs four free hands for a proper Blaine kiss, Kurt has found recently. At least, they're much better that way, as Blaine is pretty good with his hands.

With lips that had just been thoroughly attended to, he smiled at the cute and thoughtful gesture of his boyfriend bringing dinner just in case he needed it, and told him "I actually ate some of your lovely instant mac and cheese from that box you left here." Blaine sat at the window seat, smiling to himself that he had provided Kurt's dinner already after all. Kurt continued, "I don't know WHY you love that stuff. But I must say, it does have the redeeming quality of being very easy to eat while writing a paper."

"Ah, the history paper? Did you finish it?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Just proof-reading now, I can look it over with fresh eyes in the morning."

Blaine was nodding his head. Kurt looked at the food and decided Blaine looked tastier, so he went over to sit on his couch and gestured for his knight-with-shining-styrofoam to come join him. "Blaine, you are such a sweetheart to bring me dinner!"

"I'm a sweetheart?" Blaine asked from the window.

"Yeah."

"Wow. I'm a sweetheart!" He gave it a jocular tone, but almost looked seriously impressed that someone would think that of him.

"Shut up! Get over here, you dingbat!"

"Wait. Now I'm a dingbat?"

"Yes, Blaine. And by the way, it's that 'wait' part that makes you a dingbat." He batted his eyelashes over at him all the way across the room by the window. "What are you waiting for?"

Blaine's eyes darkened and his eyelids lowered as he rose and crossed the room like he was stalking prey.

Kurt's intake of breath coincided with his eyes widening, excited by this new aggressive move as Blaine approached him. Even though it was begun in jest, in reaction to the whole "dingbat" teasing from Kurt, there was still a lot of "real" behind it.

All four hands came into play pretty quickly as soon as Blaine bent over to take control of Kurt's lips again, and then crawled onto the couch over him.

Finn was the last to join the little impromptu conference call that had already lasted almost 20 minutes, with Tina, Quinn, Artie, Mike, Mercedes and Santana arguing about Rachel. Tina had finally shouted "Mike, call Finn!" After a few minutes of trying to catch up with the arguments flying rapid-fire over the phone lines, Finn wondered why the heck nobody had called Rachel herself for gosh sake.

Finn: "Everyone, come on. Give her some credit. We don't even know if she's figured out that Regionals and her press opening are on the same night yet. Maybe she doesn't realize."

Santana: "Oh COME ON! She's not stupid. She just tends to do whatever is best for her spotlight."

Mercedes: "But Finn is right. We have to give her the benefit of the doubt. She loves the spotlight and is a total diva, but she somehow always comes through for her friends in really big ways, you know? We should just ask her what's going on."

Santana: "Please. I don't put it past her to choose a starring role in front of tons of press instead of our mere little high school competition."

Finn: "Alright, guys. Stop it. If you don't want to call her, I'm just gonna go over there. Now leave this alone. I'll talk to you later."

Seeing Finn at her doorstep suddenly, looking nervous about whatever he was going to ask her, Rachel thought this was it; he was finally there to get back together with her.

"Rachel, can I come in so we can talk about something?"

She led him to her living room and they sat on the couch. He was acting a bit more distant and stand-offish than she had imagined he would when he came to profess his love for her, especially when he pulled away from her hand touching his arm.

"What is it, Finn?"

"OK, So, all of Glee club thinks that you are gonna bail on us since Regionals is the same night as your big MTG opening."

"Oh, I figured nobody knew that was the same night."

"Rachel, are you serious? You're really gonna choose MTG over us?"

"No! Finn, of course not. Don't be ridiculous. The understudy is doing like 4 of the shows instead of me. There are three Thursday night shows and then there's the Regionals night. They never let high school students do the school nights. You'll know her. She's one of the actresses you see in almost every show the MTG puts on. I do most of the shows, and she does all the school nights, and I asked the director if we could have her do that Saturday for Regionals, too. This is all pretty standard stuff for the MTG."

"But, isn't that Saturday show the night all the press is there?"

"Not all of them. Most of the papers go then, so we get publicity for the whole run, but there are other reviews too. That first night is mostly about the show itself, and really, for community theatre, the reviews are mostly about getting people to go see it. If they want to notice me and write about what a rising star I am, they'll have opportunities for that."

"But isn't that Saturday night the one with most of the opportunities for that?"

"Well it doesn't matter, because I would suck that night if I went on while all I could think about was you guys and Regionals."

Finn's whole body language changed. His shoulders no longer faced away from her so much and his legs angled closer to hers. He sought out her eyes, and couldn't hide the look of realization in his that he should have known she'd feel that way. He felt ashamed for a split second before he thought that he was justified in wondering if she'd go for the bigger role that night.

"You really mean that, Rachel?" Oh he wanted so hard to believe that she did, and that she would choose him -well, all of them of course is what he meant to think- over the big press night.

She touched his arm again, and this time he didn't move away. "I couldn't be anywhere but with you at Regionals. If I were, I'd be lost. My mind and my heart would be with you guys anyway and I wouldn't be able to perform well at all."

The only thing in his brain at the moment was kiss her, just kiss her, so he eventually gave up trying to form any other thoughts, and that's what he did.

Kurt woke up to the sound of his roommate turning on the sink in their tiny washroom. Time to get up, ugh. Then he realized he was not in his bed, he was on his couch, and tangled up in the arms and legs of the most gorgeous boy he'd ever seen in his life. Oh my goodness. Why didn't his roommate wake them up last night? It was obvious they had just fallen asleep innocently. Maybe it was already too late when his roommate came in and he figured it was safer for Blaine to hide out in here than to try to sneak back to his dorm after curfew. Ah, well. What's done is done. And… it's pretty comfy and awesome too.

He indulged in watching Blaine's features as he stirred a bit, but held on to sleep. The way he clung on to Kurt tighter as he did so, made Kurt wish it were Saturday. Alas, they had to get to class, so before his roommate would emerge from the washroom, he scooted up from his resting spot on Blaine's chest so that he could feather some soft kisses along his jaw line and his eyebrows until he roused and blinked his eyes open to smile at Kurt with a sleepy "mmmmm…"

Kurt chuckled at what a cute morning-face Blaine had, which he was witnessing here for the first time, and said, "Morning, Sweetheart."

Blaine slowly and gradually came out of his Kurt-centered reverie and then sat upright blurting out, "Oh my gosh! We fell asleep? I could get in so much trouble!"

"Only if anyone knew you didn't make it back. Just act like you left your dorm moments ago this morning, and you'll be fine."

"I came to walk you to breakfast." He was stretching as he said this, so it came out in a way that someone showing up at the door to say this for real wouldn't ever sound like, punctuated by a huge yawn and all.

"You can borrow a new shirt of mine, just roll up the sleeves." They both chuckled. One of Kurt's shirts would work just fine with Blaine's jacket. For breakfast at least.

Kurt's roommate left for breakfast after laughing with them about their stupidity, and giving them the heads-up that he had called Blaine's roommate when he got in last night right at curfew and found him asleep on the couch. Since his roommate had said that the resident advisor was still up over there, they figured he should stay where he was and have a better chance of not getting in trouble for being out so late. Being out past curfew is a serious violation, and they don't take any excuses.

As soon as his roommate closed the door, Blaine turned to Kurt and asked, "Hey, when we woke up, did you call me Sweetheart? Like it's my name now?"

Finishing up arranging his tie in the mirror, Kurt leaned down to the couch to give him a kiss. "Yup. I think it is. Why, would you rather I call you Medium Drip?" He went to walk away to lend impact to the cute teasing comment.

At that, Blaine jumped up and tried to stand as tall as Kurt to glare into his eyes. "Call me Medium Drip, and I'll call you 'Mr. Plaid Flannel' in public!"

"HEY! My girl Brittany kind of liked that look on me, I'll have you know."

"I don't doubt that. You look gorgeous in everything."

"Oh, please. Not like you, Blaine. You're even impossibly handsome when you first wake up in the morning. It's ridiculous."

"Aw, shucks. Thanks."

"I'm very envious, that's for sure. But hey, I'm the one who gets to look at you, so I'm actually the luckier one of the two of us!"

"Wait a minute Kurt." Blaine took his chin in his hand and looked deep in his eyes. "You're serious? Do you really not think that you're far more beautiful than I am?"

Kurt laughed out loud. That lilting, melodious laugh that always got Blaine right in the stomach-butterflies, and… elsewhere. "Blaine, now you're really being ridiculous."

Pulling on Kurt's tie and bringing their lips together slowly and tenderly, Blaine tried to think of a way to get through to that thick skull. "Sweet flattering compliments, babe, but if you really think I'm better looking than you, I'm going to have to get you a better mirror. How could I think that you're one of the most beautiful men I've ever seen if it's not true? First of all, it is impossible to get a photo of you that is not heart-stopping, classically handsome. Kurt, that's just empirical evidence. You can't argue that."

"Oh, whatever. Being photogenic is different than being good-looking in person. I do very much like the fact that you think I'm handsome, though. I'll take it!" Giggles escaped his lips as he tried to hug Blaine who took the opportunity to attack his neck with kisses.

All along that alabaster neck, in between kisses, Blaine whispered, "Everyone... on the planet... would... consider you handsome,... Kurt. Truly... beautiful."

Inside his head, Blaine was thinking about Kurt's amazing, bright, expressive eyes that saw into him deeper than anyone else ever had, and his silky skin and the way he can make those cheeks blush so easily oh god he loved doing that, and those eyelashes that flutter when he reacts to something Blaine says or does, and oh god those lips, those always rosy lips, and the soft eyebrows that make him so handsome and were so masterfully used to express almost anything, and make Blaine want to spend hours just kissing them alone… but he felt that gushing about all this would somehow make his point less effectively to Kurt than if he stuck to asserting that everyone in the world would agree that he is classically beautiful.

He raised his head to grace those always-rosy lips with his millionth kiss, and purred, "Kurt, if you honestly don't realize that you are as beautiful as you actually are, then I am officially now making it my job to remind you every day."

A/N – OMG I was attacked by fluff! Someone get me peanut butter so I can make a sandwich. I really tried to push the angst, but these two only let me get a hint of it set up for now because they couldn't STOP being so cute, GOSH! They must have been influenced by the chapter title. My fault.

Chapter 11 + headstrong characters who refuse to listen to their author or take their hands off each other + peanut butter = Fluffernutter Flattermenters

OK now I'm just hungry.

There's much more drama and interesting stuff next chapter, almost completed.

Comments? (Pretty-please?) Improvement ideas? (Double-please?)