I wasn't very keen on this chapter at all at first, but after editing it extensively I'm much happier with it. As almost all my plans are, my plans for this to not be the last chapter were foiled when I added a bit to the end and thought that it made quite a nice conclusion to the story.
Thanks heaps to everyone who followed and/or favourited this story, and especially to Spangledout, Orange-Coyote, madamterry, klainer4ever11 and AidenVanHelsing for reviewing. Your reviews make my day. :)
Disclaimer: I dreamed a dream in time gone by, that Glee was mine and mine for keeping... but there are dreams that cannot be, instead I'm sad - in fact I'm weeping...
Yeah, I know, that was pretty pathetic... but I couldn't resist! ;)
Anyway, on with the last chapter!
Chapter Thirteen - 'New'
Kurt saw Blaine's reassuring expression change to one of mingled annoyance and embarrassment.
"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.
"I was mistaken," Blaine grimaced, glancing apologetically at Kurt, "There are people we know here. Well, people I know, at least." He inclined his head surreptitiously towards the couple gleefully striding towards them. Blaine hesitated for a moment, biting his lip, then suddenly came to a decision, "Pretend we haven't seen them and casually walk away," he said. "Quickly."
Kurt looked curiously at the couple out of the corner of his eye, but decided that this was probably not the best time to ask any further questions. He kept his interest quiet with effort, not unlike a person attempting to conceal hiccoughs, and instead hurried after Blaine, trying to look as though he was simply strolling peacefully along. The couple quickened their pace as soon as they saw Kurt and Blaine start moving, immediately guessing what Blaine was trying to do.
Each gradual, sequential increase in Kurt and Blaine's speed was matched by an identical one in the couple's. Consequently, Kurt and Blaine managed to travel only about fifty metres down the street before Blaine's admittedly rather weak tactic failed and the couple caught up to them.
"Busted," Blaine muttered darkly. He stopped, sighing, and turned slowly around. Kurt spun also, interested in where this confrontation was going to head. Blaine's grumbling, meanwhile, had been overheard by both of the rapidly approaching men.
"Aw, Blainers, you know that was a pathetic attempt," the brunette smirked. Kurt couldn't help but grin also, noticing the use of the nickname and finding it quite amusing. As well as potentially quite useful for future reference. And the man did have a point, after all. Blaine's plan had been very unlikely to succeed.
"Yeah," the blonde agreed, "it was always doomed to fail." The couple were smiling widely now, like two Cheshire cats.
Blaine groaned,
"Kurt, this is Nick and Jeff. Two extremely annoying friends from Dalton. Nick and Jeff, this is Kurt."
"Your boyfriend," the blonde, Jeff, chimed in, a teasing flash of light in his eye. "We know; we saw you two kissing."
"Not that you could really miss it," Nick added with an almost-identical expression.
Kurt chose to be polite and ignore Nick and Jeff's comments, and instead stepped forward to shake their hands. Well, ignore all their comments apart from the first one, that is, which had been more of a statement than a jibe. Were they boyfriends, now? He glanced back over his shoulder at Blaine, shrugging slightly with a small, questioning half-smile. Blaine returned the shrug, accompanied with a larger smile of his own in confirmation. He supposed that they were, really. And if Kurt's reply, consisting of an even wider grin, overflowing with happiness, was any thing to go by, he liked the idea of being boyfriends just as much as Blaine.
Nick, meanwhile, was looking Kurt up and down critically.
"Hmm..." he said, "you look much nicer than any of Blaine's previous boyfriends. Not like a total sleazebag at all. And judging from the way you two kissed..."
"...I'd say that you are destined to last a lot longer, too," Jeff finished. Kurt's eyes widened at how Jeff had entered in the middle of Nick's sentence with even a tiny pause. The effect was slightly disturbing.
"Don't worry..." Nick began, having noticed Kurt's surprise and deciding to capitalise on it.
"...we do that quite a lot," Jeff explained, joining in on the joke eagerly, "we like to think that..."
"...our apparently-psychic powers just show how..." Nick elaborated.
"...close we are as a couple," Jeff finished smugly.
Kurt blinked, just a touch overwhelmed. Blaine huffed in exasperation,
"Just ignore them. They enjoy weirding everyone they meet for the first time with their creepy 'ability'."
"It's not creepy..." Jeff pouted.
"...it's cute!"
"Nick, it is most definitely not cute," Blaine shook his head.
"Well, neither are bowties!" Nick exclaimed, affronted. This sudden jump in topic confused Kurt somewhat, but he reflected that there must have been unresolved issues pertaining to bowties in the past.
"Hey! Bowties are cool!"
Kurt decided to give up on the inevitable argument of which he knew no background, and instead asked Jeff,
"So, you two are together?"
"Yep, we have been for about two years now," Jeff replied with a touch of pride, "how about you and Blaine? We saw him yesterday afternoon and he didn't mention having a boyfriend. Or even any guy that he particularly liked... Although that might have just been to avoid our teasing, " he reflected.
Blaine and Nick's argument was continuing in the background...
"But the Doctor wears bowties!"
"Yeah, but he's weird."
"Well you and Jeff reading each other's minds is weirder!"
... but neither Jeff nor Kurt was paying any attention to it.
The latter blushed in response to Jeff's question and hesitated slightly before replying,
"Well, um... it's kind of a funny story how we met..."
Jeff half-grinned, half-gaped in fond incredulity as a revelation suddenly threw itself upon him like an over-excited toddler,
"You only met yesterday, didn't you!"
"Well... yes," Kurt winced. He was aware of how bad this sounded. "I know it seems strange, to care so deeply about someone you didn't know just 24 hours ago, but I really do. Care very deeply about Blaine, I mean."
"Hey, no, it doesn't," Jeff reassured with smiling eyes, having recovered by this time from his surprise, "it's simply a case of 'love at first sight', or whatever." He then played his trump card, "And as we both know as well as anyone, there really are no such things as 'rules to love'."
Kurt gave a wry little laugh,
"I guess you're right. And, I mean, it may as well have been love at first sight. He saved me from being beaten up by two thugs, you see, so at the time he appeared a bit like an angel. Or a knight in shining armour," he laughed again.
"Ah, of course. Blaine, always the chivalrous gentleman," Jeff chuckled. "Did he pull out his boxing knowledge to frighten them away?"
"It was quite effective," nodded Kurt, "they just sloped off looking rather embarrassed."
"Serves the bullies right," Jeff said in satisfaction, mixed with a touch of pride for his close friend. "So what did you do then?"
"Well, I had just been on the way to find a place to have dinner, and Blaine hadn't eaten yet, either, so he suggested that we go to this Thai place that he knew."
"The same one he frequents numerous times a week? He waxes lyrical about that place!"
"Yes, the girl there -Trish - called him their 'most loyal customer',' Kurt laughed. He wasn't surprised that Blaine had recommended it to his friends. And it was just like Blaine to get so enthusiastic about something. Kurt then remembered another piece of relevant information, "Actually, we might be waitering there soon, with any luck."
"Oh, that's good that you've found a job. Nick and I work at a bar. It's quite small, but fairly popular," Jeff informed him.
"How did you two meet?" asked Kurt curiously. He'd been wondering that for a short time.
"We'd been best friends ever since we both started at Dalton, when we were fourteen," Nick answered for his boyfriend. The argument between himself and Blaine had apparently been abandoned like a teenage girl's old dollhouse, or alternatively settled one way or the other.
"They were so irritating," Blaine told Kurt, rolling his eyes as he re-lived memories, "it was painfully obvious that they had feelings for each other. The idiots just tried to ignore those feelings for two whole years before they could bring themselves to admit them. So many sickeningly sweet exchanges, and so much barely-concealed sexual tension..."
"We didn't want to ruin our friendship," Jeff stated whilst shrugging, acting casual but with a baby hedgehog-like bristle of defensiveness.
Kurt nodded. The past day or so had taught him that torn, frightened feeling, although he had not experienced it to the same extent that Nick and Jeff had over two years. Similarly, after meeting Kurt, Blaine also secretly sympathised with his friends. Not that he would ever admit it. Blaine had teased Nick and Jeff about their reluctance to divulge their feelings too often in the last few years for him to ever concede that he had, at any stage, shared that same hesitance.
"Also," added Nick, "no one really knew that we were gay. I certainly didn't think that Jeff was, and vice versa." This had, as one would easily assume, been a rather major problem.
"No one knew," Blaine corrected, rolling his eyes again, "except, of course, everyone who ever saw you two together. Apart from yourselves, obviously."
"We weren't that bad!" Nick protested. Blaine raised an incredulous eyebrow. Nick hit him.
"Children, children," Kurt chided, pretending to be serious. He couldn't, however, hold either his curiosity or his giggles at bay. "So how did you finally get together?" Kurt asked.
"The Warblers staged an intervention," Blaine said gleefully. "Needless to say, it was extremely successful."
"It was hideously embarrassing," Jeff corrected. "They engineered a game of 'spin the bottle', and rigged it so that Nick and I kissed."
"Can you even rig 'spin the bottle'?" Kurt asked, at once both slightly incredulous and slightly impressed.
"Apparently," Jeff shrugged with a dry twist of his lips, "well, the Warblers managed to, anyway. And if anyone can accomplish the 'impossible', it's the Warblers."
"Impressive."
Blaine nodded in satisfaction,
"I know."
"We tried to forget that it ever happened," Nick continued, "we didn't really know how to deal with it. Both of us were too scared to confess our true feelings."
"And then Nick found my diary..." sighed Jeff, "and we talked, and kissed a bit..."
"...a lot," Blaine interjected.
"...and ended up going out," Jeff steadfastly ignored his friend's comment. "It seemed like the end of the world at the time, but it was actually a blessing in disguise."
"A bit like almost being beaten up by two thugs?" Kurt suggested. "Destiny sometimes appears to play by some rather strange rules."
"Destiny it may have been, but I'm convinced that she enlisted the Warblers to help her," stated Blaine.
Nick scowled at him,
"Us getting together was hardly thanks to the Warblers!" he scoffed. "You guys had practically nothing to do with it."
"We did so! If not for the 'spin the bottle' incident and our numerous subtle hints, you two would have never gotten together."
"Subtle?" Jeff snorted, "the Warblers have never been subtle. They just like to think that they are."
"And you aren't able tell us that we can't talk," continued Nick, "as we were Warblers as well, so we have experience in these matters. Our plan to make you break up with Fletcher, for example, was not subtle in the least, despite being a resounding success. What the Warblers set out to achieve, they almost always do."
"That's true," Blaine conceded, stealing a quick, self-conscious glance at Kurt. "It was the complete opposite of subtle to steal his phone and show me the sexts he'd sent to that sophomore. Even though that rather blunt tactic was nethertheless quite effective." Buoyed up by the sympathetic look he received from Kurt, Blaine continued, "Although I do think that that plan backfired a bit on all of you, especially Wes and David."
"Oh?" Kurt inquired, interested.
Jeff shuddered and responded,
"A whole week of Blaine singing, humming and playing mushy, depressing break-up songs. That was hell. Though at least we weren't forced to watch endless reruns of rom-coms, or put on a couple of pounds due to excessive icecream consumption. Poor David and Wes..."
"Ah, yes, Blaine did mention his methods of coping with a break-up to me," Kurt laughed.
Nick suddenly turned to face him, placing his hands solidly on Kurt's shoulders, and started to speak seriously. Or at least pretended to, anyway.
"Be warned, Kurt. If you ever break our Blainer's heart, we will hunt you down. I'm sure Wes and David will jump at the chance to join us, too. No one deserves to be tortured in the way we will be if we have to help Blaine get over yet another break-up," he appeared to joke after delivering the warning.
Kurt had become rather pale by this stage, as though all the blood in his body had decided to pool in his feet, instead of in his face, which was usually the case. He smiled shakily around at the three faces that were currently staring at him. Nick's display of humour had been entirely lost on Kurt, following, as it was, the man's undeniable threat.
Jeff and Nick were attempting to look menacing and failing miserably, although Kurt did understand that Nick's words weren't entirely in jest. It was obvious that both of Blaine's friends cared about him a great deal. Blaine himself looked mildly embarrassed, as well as reassuring and rather apologetic. All at the same time.
'Blaine just seems to be able to blend completely different facial expressions together,' Kurt thought. 'I've never met anyone else who could do that so well. Mind you, Blaine is so amazing and unique. And he's my boyfriend! I still can't really believe that. What did I ever do to deserve such an incredible man?'
Nick and Jeff's fake expressions had fallen right away once they had seen Kurt whiten like a sheet of homemade paper placed out in the sun. Jeff patted him on the shoulder gently,
"We're exaggerating, Kurt," he reassured. "You seem like a great guy. And, even though we really only just met, I think you'll be fantastic for Blaine."
Kurt's smile this time it was one filled with genuine happiness and friendship.
"Thank you. That means a lot. You two are amazing friends to Blaine. And please believe me when I say that I will never do anything to intentionally hurt him. He means far too much to me to ever even consider that."
Blaine gazed at Kurt, his eyes impossibly warm and deep, dragging Kurt into them as though they were black holes.
"And the same goes for me to Kurt," he said softly as a tiny smile alighted upon his lips.
The two looked into each other's eyes for a few more seconds, totally oblivious to anyone else or to their surroundings, until Nick started making fake gagging sounds.
Kurt looked away, blushing, but Blaine just smacked his now-grinning friend on the arm. Kurt wondered how often Blaine did this, and whether Nick had ever bruised from the repeated occurrence.
"Hey!" Blaine exclaimed, "it's not like I haven't had to put up with Jeff and you making heart-eyes at each other for years, even before you two actually got together."
"We did not make heart-eyes at each other!" Nick protested.
Blaine snorted,
"Oh, please. You two are the soppiest item I've ever seen. Even when you were just 'friends' you acted like an old married couple. It was sickening."
"As touching as you and Kurt are, Blaine," broke in Jeff, "and although Blaine does have a point, I think what my somewhat-idiotic boyfriend is trying to communicate is that we are actually blocking the sidewalk, and have been for quite some time now, so therefore we should probably move somewhere else."
Kurt winced,
"Oh no, not again..."
Both Nick and Jeff turned to look at him, curiosity covering their faces.
Blaine sighed,
"Well, first we were talking in the doorway at the restaurant, and a we didn't realise that a lady was trying to get past before she asked us to move."
Kurt blushed again,
"And, um..."
"You were blocking the sidewalk when you were kissing?" Nick supplied.
"Yes, we saw at least three people have to detour around you onto the road," Jeff nodded gleefully. Taking in the stricken expressions on Kurt and Blaine's faces, he softened slightly and hastily and eagerly reassured them,
"They were all smiling."
Nick agreed,
"Yeah, they were. One girl even was even filming it. I reckon it's probably on tumblr by now," he grinned delightedly.
Kurt and Blaine groaned loudly, the former hiding his head in his boyfriend's shoulder whilst Blaine buried his in his hands.
"You didn't have to tell them that!' Jeff hissed at Nick.
He smiled evilly,
"Oh, but look at them, Jeffy! They're all bright red and embarrassed, like man-sized, man-shaped lobsters. It's hilarious."
Kurt raised his head slightly from Blaine's shoulder to snort in amusement at both Jeff's nickname and at the ridiculous simile, before dropping it back down again. Blaine's shoulder was very comfy, better than a feather-stuffed pillow, so Kurt was going to attempt to stay there as long as possible.
Jeff, meanwhile, shook his head wearily at his incorrigible boyfriend,
"That's true, but... it's cruel, Nick."
Now it was Blaine's turn to lift up his head, nodding emphatically in agreement with Jeff,
"Very cruel," he stated, pretending to glare at his friend. The infuriating man just grinned cheerfully.
Kurt decided that now was the time to break in,
"We are still blocking the sidewalk, you realise," he pointed out. Slightly foolish expressions came over the others' faces.
"Whoops," Nick said.
"Kurt and I were on our way Maple Sugar. Do you guys want to join us?" suggested Blaine. On one hand, he would have liked to continue their date in private. But that would have been rude, and Nick and Jeff were very good friends. They both seemed to like Kurt, and get on well with him. Besides, Kurt and Blaine were living in the same apartment block, and were going to be attending NYADA together. It wasn't like Blaine was deprived of opportunities to spend time with his boyfriend. 'I love calling Kurt that...'
"That would be great," Jeff gratefully. Nick and himself had hijacked Kurt and Blaine's date somewhat, so it was nice of Blaine to invite them along.
"Yeah, we were just standing in line in that cafe, waiting to order, when we caught sight of you two," supplied Nick. He never turned opportunities to drink coffee down, and was pleased that he'd be able to make up for the cup he'd missed in order to catch Blaine and Kurt.
"A cup of coffee together, then," Kurt smiled at his new friends. Although the way in which they had met had been slightly awkward, he was very glad that he had made Nick and Jeff's acquaintances. Kurt had been in New York less than 24 hours, and already he'd formed six new friendships and found an amazing man who he was pretty sure he was in love with. Fortune appeared to be following Kurt like his own, personal sunshower, drenching the hard-baked soils of his previously drought-stricken life.
Sure, Kurt had been extremely lucky to have an accepting father who loved him for who he was, as well as caring, supportive friends and a new family in Carole and Finn. Carole could not completely replace Kurt's real mother, however, and, try as they might, neither his family or his friends could cover Kurt in enough love to protect him from the world's bigots and bullies.
But that was hundreds of miles away back in Ohio. This was New York. And Kurt had a faint, ghost of an idea that the 'new' in New York could also represent the 'new' in 'new life', 'new prospects', 'new love' and 'new hope'.
I hope you liked the last chapter. Would you like an epilogue? I might have an idea... but only if enough people want it! ;) What did you think?
I'm Eponime on tumblr and Eponime13 on Twitter. All my stories are also on tumblr. :)