Title: Just Listen (14/20)
Author: foreternityblue
Pairing: Blaine/Kurt
Rating: PG-13
Chapter Word Count: 4, 200
Summary:
Blaine Anderson was McKinley High School's social enigma from the moment he stepped through into the hallways his freshman year. Everyone loved and adored him and he was energetic and loud-until an incident in the middle of sophomore year that absolutely no one could figure out. Kurt Hummel was the bullied gay kid who always had a secret interest in the mystery that was Blaine Anderson. When they get partnered for a long project, maybe, just maybe, Kurt will be able to solve the mystery of what happened to Blaine personally in their sophomore year. Klaine AU

Author's Note: I finally figured out how many chapters this story still have! Twenty is my final decision, so there's still quite a few chapters left... not sure if that's a good thing or not. As much as I don't want to slow down my updates when the end is so near, I mighthave to... just slightly... we'll see. Anyhow, here we go.

And, yes, I do twist around the canon.

The final light spray of hairspray had been coated just as Kurt heard the honking of a car horn on the street below. He set down the can loudly, before turning and hurrying out of his room, trying to move slowly as to not irritate is mostly healed injuries. However, due to the minor (major) fact that he woke up much later than he was supposed to… well, he was going to have to rush.

"Dang it," he muttered under his breath as he checked his phone after looking over his outfit once more to make sure that everything was okay. He typed a quick response to the new text that he received in his inbox.

From: Blaine
To: Kurt

Someone woke up late today, I can tell. ;)

From: Kurt
To: Blaine

Not the time to tease me if you want me to get downstairs within ten minutes, Blaine. : |

He hurried down the stairs, his hand gripping the banister so that he wouldn't trip and fall, dropping into the kitchen quickly to grab an apple and to say a quick goodbye to Carole, who was leaving work later than usual that morning, and to Finn who was getting a ride from Puck, who was always late picking Finn up.

"Bye, Carole," he said quickly, pecking his step mother on the cheek, before rushing past Finn, waving a bye to him, "See you at school, Finn. Try not to be late for first period."

"Be careful!" he heard Carole shout from behind him, "Make sure Blaine drives safely!" she added as she normally did when she left for work late enough to see him off to school.

"Dude, you know it's not my fault that Puck is always late! If you'd just let me go to school with you and Blaine again then this wouldn't be a problem," Finn shouted at the same time that his biological mother did, and their calls mixed and overrode one another, making for one extremely interesting combination of words and voices that didn't really make sense.

Kurt grabbed his bag from the front hall and pulled it onto his shoulder, not bothering to reply to either of those things, mostly because he was in the rush, opening the door quickly before closing it behind him. It wasn't necessary for him to lock the door, for once, so he walked briskly down the front walk, biting into the apple and swallowing before smiling at the person leaned against the passenger door of the car.

"Morning," he greeted when he was close enough.

"Good morning, sleepy head," Blaine said in response, lowly but clearly.

Kurt couldn't help but smile even more, even though Blaine was clearly teasing him for waking up late.

Blaine smiled at Kurt in return, and pulled open the car door, stepping to the side to allow Kurt to slide into the car and sit down with ease, setting his bag down on the floor like he usually did on mornings when Blaine swung by to pick him up. He watched Blaine walk across the front of the car, the tips of his fingers trailing the hood of the car, before he opened the driver's door and slid in himself, turning the keys in the ignition.

Kurt leaned back comfortably as Blaine pulled away from his small house and drove them towards the school. They sat in a comfortable silence, not even bothering to turn on music for some reason. It was just nice, being in silence together.

With a short glance, Kurt noted that Blaine wasn't wearing his ear buds, and sighed happily at this, even though he was more than aware that before either of them even stepped out of the car they would just be back in. Kurt didn't mind too much, though, because any progress was good progress. As long as Blaine no longer constantly had his ear buds in around Kurt, it was perfectly fine with the brunet.

Blaine seemed to sense Kurt's stare, and met his gaze when they reached a red stoplight, his eyebrow rising slightly as another smile ghosting across his face, "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked in a playfully annoyed tone.

A small snort filled the car and Kurt looked away from his friend, waving his hand in the air briefly, "Oh, nothing, nothing," he replied flippantly, before the light turned green, causing Blaine to laugh and start driving again, not able to answer while he was driving dangerously close to the school.

It wouldn't exactly be helpful or great if Blaine got too distracted with their play fight and ended up running over somebody. Not that it had ever happened… or got close to happening outside of the middle school the other day…

Of course not.

Another quite amused smile appeared on Kurt's face at the memory that flashed through his head—that totally didn't happen because Blaine had been absolutely mortified and Kurt swore that he'd never tell anybody about that little incident that almost (didn't) take place.

Kurt laughed shortly, and airily, before trying to find something else to think about. His eyes ended up catching Tina, Mike, Brittany, Artie, and Mercedes walking into school together as basically quintuplets as he and Blaine pulled into the parking lot. A sudden idea appeared in his head, and he looked over at his friend, who appeared to be looking for the best parking spot left in the entire lot.

Blaine didn't use to actually look for a good parking spot, until Kurt made that random, useless note one day about how he hated parking far away from things, even if it made getting out easer—only if you ran to your car, though. The moment Kurt decided to say that, Blaine started looking from all ends of the earth (parking lot, earth, same thing in high school) in the morning to find the closest parking spot possible.

It was a cute little quirk Blaine had. He liked making people as happy as possible, and Kurt knew that, which was exactly why he never bothered giving his best friend hell for trying so hard to please him. It was really sweet, actually, since basically no one else would do that for Kurt.

No, seriously.

He had tried to get Finn to actually look for a good parking spot, but Finn just parked next to all of the football players. Yes, that was decently close to the school… but it was also close to the trashcan and leering idiots. Finn was lucky that Kurt was still being avoided so no one would get in major trouble, otherwise the brunet would not have been happy with his stepbrother. At all.

The car was suddenly turned off, and Kurt blinked, realizing that Blaine had found a spot—it was a pretty good spot, actually. Not too far away from the front doors, and a decent amount of space away from the trashcan and the football players. Nodding to himself, Kurt looked over at Blaine, who was pulling out his iPod from his glove box, unraveling the headphones from around it with a concentrated gaze.

"Do you think that you'll ever just leave your iPod at home, Blaine?" Kurt asked softly. His eyes didn't miss the way that Blaine's shoulders tensed slightly at the question, even though Blaine tried to hide it.

The dark haired teen inhaled deeply, and exhaled slowly, before looking over at Kurt, licking his lips slowly, "Maybe… someday, I will. It just depends," Blaine responded softly, the hand holding the iPod tightening around it.

Kurt stared over at his best friend, his head turned to the side while his body stayed in its straight posture, turned almost perfectly forwards as if someone had positioned him like that and made it so that he couldn't move. Blaine stared back, in a posture that was nearly eerily similar to Kurt's.

Finally, Kurt sighed, breaking their somewhat tense silence, reaching over slowly and placing a hand on Blaine's shoulder, just wanting his friend to relax again, "I have an idea," he announced gently. A curious look cross Blaine's eyes, and it was clear to Kurt that he wasn't going to answer verbally, so the brunet continued, "Why don't you come with me to glee club after school?"

Blaine looked clearly confused for a few moments, "Kurt… I'm not part of the glee club—"

"You never were last year, and you still dropped by a lot," Kurt pointed out, his hand subconsciously sliding from Blaine's shoulder to his bicep, holding on gently.

Hazel eyes flickered to Kurt's hand for a second, and Blaine's other hand reached up and grasped Kurt's wrist gently, holding it for a few moments with such care that the touch was nearly note there… It took Kurt a few moments to remember that was the wrist that got broken. "… I guess I could come in and… observe," Blaine finally said, his hand sliding slowly from Kurt's wrist to his hand.

Kurt ended up smiling more than he intended to when Blaine's thumb stroked the skin on his hand, and nodding a little bit, "I'm glad that you're going to," he responded, not wanting to pull his hand away, nor to look away for a split second.

They sat like that for a while, staring at each other unwaveringly, holding each other's hands—something that they had gotten into the habit of when they sat in silence in private. Neither really knew why, they just did. Never in public, though… not after what happened to Kurt.

Eventually, they had to let go and they had to get out of the car, otherwise they'd be hilariously (not so hilariously, actually. Probably horrendously) late for first period… they already had to walk a little faster than usual since they loitered in Blaine's car for a while.

Suddenly, Kurt was all-too careful to cross his arms over his chest, when before he could let one arm dangle between himself and Blaine effortlessly, barely thinking a thing about it. He just felt… oddly self-conscious for some reason even though they were only friends.

Only friends.

Plus, Blaine had his hands in his pockets randomly, too, so it wasn't just Kurt. Maybe it was just the need to draw the line between friendship and romance relationship… not that there was any romance.

It had never quite occurred to Kurt before that the line was so thin, though.

In English, Kurt and Blaine were given another free day, while most other people in their class were still working their asses off. Somehow, Mrs. Coleman gave everyone a little more time to finish their projects… Kurt had a feeling that she was just rewarding himself and Blaine with more free time for being done first and actually working all those months, while punishing everyone else by extending their period of torture.

All in all, it was immensely amusing.

The two teenagers were idly doing their own things: Kurt was sketching a random design in his notebook for the first time in a while, and Blaine was reading some huge book that Kurt couldn't quite remember the name of off the top of his head. For all he knew, it could actually be a fairy tale book for no reason.

Kurt had just finished designing the pants on the sketched model he drew, when Blaine nudged his arm gently with his elbow. Kurt looked over at his best friend, and automatically leaned closely to him, letting Blaine maneuver so that his mouth was next to Kurt's ear.

That was another random thing that Kurt pointed out. Notes were cute, but they got extensive (especially when they started having 'x' wars). Plus, he preferred when Blaine would actually talk to him (he didn't bother adding that it just felt nice, having warm air spread over his face and neck. Normally he found that vaguely disturbing but not with—bad train of thought), so Blaine slowly got into the habit of talking quietly to Kurt. A few times, Kurt caught him talking quietly to Santana, as well, and always felt a little accomplished, especially since Santana sent him an approving glance once, paired with a nod.

In between all of the angry, jealous glances, that is. It was nice to get one nice glance, though…

"Are you sure that you want me to come to glee club after school?" Blaine asked, pulling back slightly so that he could look at Kurt's face properly.

Kurt rose an eyebrow at him in response, not bothering to lean forwards to whisper into Blaine's ear in return, "Only if you want to," he muttered with a small shrug. Of course he wanted Blaine to go to glee club practice, because maybe that would convince him to open up a little more and openly be more of himself. "I don't want you to go just because I want you to go."

Blaine stared at him for a few more moments, before nodding slowly, another faint smile spreading across his face, "I won't lie," he whispered, shocking Kurt a little bit since he wasn't leaning forwards any more than he already was. Progress. "I do miss the New Directions' rehearsals. You guys were always immeasurably amusing."

Kurt laughed lightly under his breath, unable to stop himself from grinning just a little bit, "I'm glad that you can find our insanity to be amusing."

Again, Blaine smiled briefly in response, before returning to reading his book, letting Kurt go back to sketching a somewhat messy design, the silence settling between them once again… until they realized they were still leaning oddly close to each other. At that, they both coughed, almost in complete unison, before straightening up again.

At lunch, when Kurt was innocently eating his salad, sitting with some of the glee club members since Blaine was off helping some teacher grade papers, Mercedes dumped an almost awkwardly random question on him.

"Kurt," he looked up from his mixed up bowl of vegetables, eyebrows risen, "don't you think that… maybe you're getting too attached to Blaine?" she asked slowly, deliberately, as if she had actually been rehearsing how exactly to ask the question. "I mean, too attached for you two to just be friends."

Kurt's mouth fell into an impeccable frown, and he heard everyone else he was sitting with shift uncomfortably—except for Santana and Rachel. "No, I don't think that, Mercedes," he responded politely, sticking a piece of lettuce into his mouth, "We're just friends," he added after he swallowed completely, "Nothing more."

"It looks like there's something more going on between you two," Rachel interjected, giving Kurt a look that said she was completely serious. He shot back his own look that simply asked her for proof, and she sighed, rolling her eyes a little bit. "You guys stop by each other's lockers constantly—"

"I truly do hope that you know that friends can do that and not be dating—"

"When you guys walk together, you're always extremely close—"

"Friends can do that, too, Rachel—"

"Your shoulders brush—"

"Crowded hallways—"

"Hands touch—"

"Crowded—"

"Okay, shut up, both of you," Santana snapped, throwing her fork onto her tray, stopping the kind of fight—which was honestly just Kurt and Rachel trying to one-up each other to win the fight about Kurt's personal life. "You're giving me a headache, even if it's amusing me to watch Hobbit over there fight with Hummel," Rachel made an indignant sound and muttered something about how she was totally right. "Point is, is that there has to be something going on between you and Blaine," she was looking directly at Kurt at that point, "Especially if you're working so hard to defend the point that you guys are just friends."

"Okay, that's just not true—"

"Sorry to say, dude," Finn suddenly added his two cents, which was just lovely, "but it's true. The harder you work to prove something the less people are going to believe you half the time… I think…"

Rachel patted his arm and told him that he was right with that random statistic.

Kurt sighed and rolled his eyes, "Whatever. I'm not talking about my personal life with Blaine anymore. End of the story is that we're just friends. That's it."

He went back to eating, and everyone stared at his for a little while longer, all with different looks on their faces, before slowly going back to previous conversations and actions. The last person to look away, as far as Kurt knew, was Santana who was giving him a critical gaze because she knew that he was lying.

Well, even then, he wasn't lying. Kurt and Blaine were just friends, even if Kurt felt more than platonic friendship for Blaine. It didn't change their status as friends; it just made for a one-sided romance.

It didn't change anything.

After school, Kurt led Blaine towards the choir room, consciously putting more space between them than he usually did. Blaine obviously noticed the deliberate space between their respective bodies, but he didn't say anything, or make a move to step closer to Kurt as he normally would if they got separated in a crowded hallway or anything.

Together, they walked into the usual meeting room, to see everyone standing or sitting, talking to each other and laughing. Every last member of the New Directions, including Brad and Mr. Schue, looked over at the doorway, and all of them looked a little confused as to why Blaine was there… without ear buds in.

Actually, Santana looked less confused than everyone else. She looked more… pissed off.

"Blaine's just here to observe today," Kurt explained to the abruptly silent room, walking inside of it easily, ignoring the weird looks. He heard Blaine following, and when he spared his best friend a glance over his shoulder, Blaine didn't really looked worried or stiff… he actually looked a little more relaxed that before.

"Well… alright," Mr. Schue said, shrugging a little bit, "Everyone take a seat so we can get started with today's rehearsal," he walked over to the piano, letting everyone situate themselves in the rows of seats.

Kurt sat down to the far left (when you entered the room left), and Blaine sat in the seat directly next to him effortlessly. He knew that they were both aware of the stares that they were getting from the members of the glee club, but they both ignored them just like they ignored every other kind of stare they got during the actual school day.

Mr. Schue turned back towards the class, smiling brightly at all of them, "Well, alright. Brittany actually told me that Santana wanted to perform something for the class today…" finally, everybody turned their gazes to the Hispanic, who was sitting next to her blonde best friend, looking a little panicked.

"She said… what?" Santana said, disbelievingly, looking over at Brittany slowly.

Brittany smiled her easy, warm smile, reaching over and touching Santana's bare arm gently, "You said that you wanted to make me feel better with a song, San," she whispered, even though everyone could hear her clearly. … That was right, she and Artie had broken up recently… "I think it'd be really, really cool if you sang it to me in front of the rest of the glee club."

Santana looked like she was about to flat-out refuse since everyone was staring at her, but when Brittany whispered something else inaudible to the rest of the teens in the room, and Santana's resolve broke visually, and she nodded slowly, agreeing begrudgingly, "Well… okay, fine. I guess I can sing the song in front of the whole glee club," she said, standing up slowly.

Everyone clapped sparingly as she made her way to the front of the room, standing in the center where Mr. Schue had previously been. The expression on her face was a weird cross between angry, annoyed, and fright for some reason, and made Kurt's eyebrow raise a little bit. What was she about to do?

"I didn't exactly expect to sing this in front of all of you guys," Santana noted a little harshly, crossing her arms, "but this is something I've been struggling with for a while. I guess that I may as well come clean to everyone in this room, since we're all freaks of nature."

No one really offended. No one could be offended. For one thing, this was Santana, for another thing, they were all used to being call freaks. They already embraced their freakish-ness, so whatever.

Santana looked over at Brad, and nodded to him, and he nodded a little in return, before looking down at the piano keys and starting to play a soft, beautiful tune.

"For you, they'll be no more crying," Santana sang, looking directly at Brittany and no one else, "For you, the sun will be shinning… and I feel that when I'm with you, it's alright… I know it's right…"

Kurt's eyes widened when he realized what Santana was singing. She was singing… a love song about loving somebody… to Brittany. Santana was singing a love song to Brittany and only Brittany. He took a short glance around the room, and it seemed like everyone else realized it as well, and all of them were thoroughly shocked.

"To you, I'll give the world…" Santana closed her eyes briefly before opening them again, and Kurt was pretty surprised to see tears shinning in them… yet not surprised at all. "To you I'll never be cold…"

Honestly, Kurt wasn't sure when he arm started dangling between his and Blaine's chairs, but it did at some point. He felt Blaine's hand brush against his own, and he inhaled sharply, loudly enough for Blaine to hear over Santana singing and Brad playing, before looking over at his best friend… who was staring at him blankly.

"And I love you, I love you, I love you… like never before," Santana belted out, probably looking directly at Brittany still, as Blaine's mouth fell open slightly, and moved his hand just barely, causing his slightly calloused fingertips to brush against Kurt's hand so lightly that it was ticklish.

Their fingers twined together almost subconsciously, and Kurt's gaze slid to his lap, his heart racing in his ear, "And I wish you all the love in the world… but most of all, I wish it from myself!"

The song started to fade when Kurt finally lifted his gaze again, this time simply looking at Santana, not daring to look at Blaine because his heart might have just exploded if he did that.

Platonic, platonic, platonic, platonic. He just had to remind himself of that.

Santana was basically backed against the piano, singing to Brittany as if the blonde were the only one in the room. When the piano finally faded out completely, Brittany was out of her chair and in Santana's arms faster than anyone could really comprehend. Kurt wondered if that was even possible…

His hand slipped from Blaine's. It returned to where it originally was, folded with his other hand in his lap. He still refused to look at his best friend, instead watching Brittany and Santana whisper to each other, before breaking apart, and slowly people moved to Santana to tell her encouraging words and to give her hugs and such things…

Kurt didn't move. Blaine didn't move. Instead, they sat there in silence, Kurt not daring to look at Blaine, and due to this he had no idea where Blaine himself was looking.

His hand still felt warm, though… and tingly, in a way, as if that moment said something.

It obviously said nothing, though, because in real life there were no signs of romance or romantic feelings. They just happened and kicked you in the ass.

Hard.

Blaine pulled up to Kurt's house after glee practice, since Finn had told Kurt that he was going out with a few of the guys and none of the girls could give Kurt a ride… conveniently.

Kurt kind of hated his friends sometimes.

They both sat in the idling car for a few moments, until Kurt leaned forwards to grab his bag, also moving to grab the door handle. "I guess I'll see you later, then—"

Blaine's hand was suddenly gently on his shoulder, and Kurt's heart gave an odd joke. He still hadn't looked Blaine in the eyes… though, at that point, he really had no choice, so he turned slowly, and found himself staring into hazel eyes once again.

"Let's hang out this weekend," Blaine proposed seemingly out of nowhere, one of his faint smile passing across his face, lingering more than it usually did.

Kurt blinked a few times… before he nodded slowly, "Okay," he responded as smoothly as possible.

He could handle hanging out with his best friend.

That he was in love with.

Yeah, he could totally handle it.

Totally.