TWENTY-SEVEN
Blaine hated Sweeney Todd.
He had been as enthusiastic about the musical as everyone else when Kurt had floated the idea, and the first week of rehearsals had been thrilling. Although he played the love-struck hero rescuing the damsel – again – to do it in the context of Sweeney Todd, when the hero wasn't the protagonist, intrigued the actor in him.
Then Parrish had ruined everything with his threat. For the remaining two weeks of rehearsal, the razorblade made an appearance in Jeff's hand and along at least one character's throat every day. The very worst were the days Kurt sat in the chair. The makeup was too good, and Blaine woke up with nightmares for the next three days.
"Oh, for Christ's sake!" Declan shouted, when Blaine botched his entrance for the third time.
"Take five!" Kurt shouted.
Declan threw his hands up and stomped out of the theater while Kurt pulled Blaine into the wings away from the others. The artificial blood smeared over Kurt's ascot sent shudders up his spine, but Kurt's hand was warm in his.
"What's going on with you, Blaine? You've been unfocused for days. It's not like you."
"It's …. It's nothing. I'll be fine." Blaine forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I'll be better. You won't have to scold me anymore."
He kept his promise, but only because he felt Kurt's eyes on him all the time: when he missed a step in the choreography, when he yawned too loudly over homework assignments, when he didn't eat a healthy breakfast. He dreaded having to tell Kurt about Parrish's threat, so he put on a brave face and repressed his fears for Kurt's sake.
o o o
The third week in April came far more quickly than the cast and crew of Sweeney Todd would have liked. They worked to the last possible second perfecting their songs and choreography and set pieces and costumes, but found themselves at Bella Notte Thursday night after dress rehearsal toasting a good weekend of shows.
Kurt wanted to skip school on Friday to worry himself sick over details, but that was not an option. Next week, the College Track students sat their final exams, which meant all term papers were due on Friday. The condensed college semester that seemed so envious to their peers put a serious strain on their mental health, and none more so than the cast of Sweeney Todd.
Ciara had a quick meal waiting for them when they walked home from school, and then ushered them over to The Wonderland to begin getting ready for their performance. The costumes and makeup being what it was, they needed considerable time to transform into their characters physically and every actor benefited from a few moments to collect himself and mentally synch up with their character. When Dagny questioned if she should put rolled up socks down her trousers or not, Declan refused to let Kurt take over the persuasion. He did, however, allow Kurt to help Jeff secure his wig when it slipped and to smarten up Nick's overcoat.
"Show circle!" Kurt called.
They had ten minutes to go before curtain. Hana skipped over from where she'd peered around the curtain to watch the audience take their seats as the lights dimmed.
"A full house," she reported nervously.
Declan addressed the audience, and the ensemble made their way into their places for the opening. The lights went down, and the overture music began.
The rest of the show was a blur for Kurt. He knew he said his lines correctly and sang his songs in tune, though the lower notes were slight pitchy, but the only parts he truly remembered he watched from the wings. Blaine's Anthony was so innocent and romantic he made Kurt swoon, and Jeff played Todd's insanity just dark enough to be captivating rather than revolting. The little boy they'd found to play Toby charmed the pants off the audience, so much so that the darkest part of the musical – a child committing a murder – passed without the outcry it should have caused.
The energy the audience directed at Kurt was entirely different than when he'd made them laugh as Lucifer. They hated him, and he loved them for it. They inspired Kurt to add a deeper sneer, a seedier tone, and they hated him even more for it. He and the audience, he felt, had developed a gleefully dark rapport. He would never get enough of this. No matter how many parts he played or shows he did, he would never tire of the audience's response to his characters.
After the reprise, they joined hands and bowed their thanks to the audience leaping out of their seats. It wasn't until Kurt saw the figures moving in the half-light that he realized what a feat they had pulled off. They had done justice to a Sondheim musical.
If they thought opening night was the highlight of their week, Saturday's performances eclipsed all expectations. Hana delivered the news that they had reached standing room only, and Declan supplied another stunning piece of news: there was still a line outside.
"This is normal for a musical, right?" Kurt asked.
His friends stared back wide-eyed. They shook their heads in unison.
"Maybe for the main cast's musical there's a full house every night and standing room only a couple of the shows, but … we're just students," Jeff stated.
Dagny gazed curiously at Kurt. "It's strange. You're so keyed in to Here, but you've only been here five months. How do you know exactly what everyone here wants?"
Kurt didn't know what to say to that. He hadn't selected the musical based on a potential audience. He'd picked a show with parts for the whole cast, but specifically a meaty role for himself to tackle. If anything, he'd taken the selfish route and lucked in to finding what the audience wanted.
Sunday's show went the same way, though there wasn't a line for the matinee. Taylor in the ticket booth had started sending away second time viewers on Cillian's orders. The students knew none of this until after their final performance when Declan approached the vanities were they sat peeling off prosthetics and cleaning off makeup.
"Stunning! Every one of you were phenomenal out there! If I didn't hate Sweeney Todd, I would have tried to come back more than once too. But I think I can sum up your performance best with a single word … encore."
It took a moment for the meaning to sink in. The cast jumped out of their seats and threw arms around each other's necks. Declan suffered a hug with thumps on the back from Nick and Jeff before shoving them down like they were excitably puppies.
"The main cast musical isn't for another two weeks because of May Day, which means the theater is standing empty next Friday and Saturday. So what do you say? Two more nights of Sweeney Todd?"
"Yes!" they shouted in unison.
Despite having several hours of daylight to burn off their energy and final exams beginning in the morning, the boys stayed awake long into the night doing nothing more than bouncing off the walls and jumping on the furniture. Nick and Jeff brought out the lightsabers for an epic battle, but Kurt favored a good old fashioned pillow fight.
"We are so going to pay for this tomorrow," Blaine laughed.
The clock read 1:24, and Nick and Jeff were still swinging lightsabers at each other and waving their hands in vague imitations of Jedis using the Force. Kurt collapsed onto the sofa beside his boyfriend and released his first yawn of the night. The previously pristine pillow he'd turned lumpy from hitting Blaine repeatedly lay in his lap.
"You're so cute when you're sleepy."
"I'll be decidedly less cute tomorrow if I don't get some rest now."
"Don't go," Blaine begged. "Sleep here. I make an awesome pillow."
Kurt was too tired to argue much. He settled onto Blaine's chest and pressed his face into the crook of his neck. His eyes fluttered shut even before Blaine wrapped him up in strong arms and pressed a goodnight kiss to his temple.
o o o
The boys did pay for their late night on Monday, but Kurt managed to pass his Linguistics test with a 95%, and Blaine, who had had so much practice conjugating Latin verbs recently, scored a 98% on his Latin final. Blaine also had a Literature final, which Nick also sat and complained about incessantly that night. He did not excel at writing long essays. Jeff yelled at them all to shut up, because he had his senior thesis to present on Thursday, which trumped all their finals put together.
After his Economics final on Wednesday, Principal Ferris called Kurt in to her office to discuss his summer semester schedule.
"I'm not doing summer school," he declared.
The principal smiled at him placidly. "Of course you are. You're College Track. So we'll sign you up for two classes Summer II since that's the off season. You need a math and hard science to complete your junior year credits. Here is the schedule of classes."
His friends were sympathetic when he told them about Summer session classes at lunch. They, too, had been harangued into signing up for two classes each, except for Jeff, who was graduating on Friday. Hana was not College Track, so escaped the torture, but Blaine and Nick would be joining him at school in July and August.
Kurt finished his finals on Wednesday, and Blaine on Thursday which ended their school year a day earlier than Nick and Jeff and a full month ahead of Hana. They elected to spend Friday celebrating surviving finals. Blaine secretly celebrated being rid of Parrish for a full four months.
During the day, Bella Notte was noticeably quieter than dinner. The owner, a pleasantly plump man called Luigi – Kurt hadn't honestly believed that was his name for months – showed them to booth at the back of the restaurant. He offered the boys such a friendly smile as he handed off the menus that Kurt believed him when he said:
"Beautiful couples deserve peace. I will make sure you have it here."
"Grazie, Luigi. You're a kind man."
"You Italian has gotten really good," Blaine complimented.
Kurt shrugged. "Professor Hirsch was right. Once you're familiar with Latin, its descendants are easy to pick up. Are you taking Linguistics next year?"
"Ugh! No talking about school! I still feel like my brain is going to explode from that awful Chemistry test. The whole time I was drawing compounds, I was also thinking up ways to murder Nick for talking me into taking it with him."
Kurt laughed appreciatively. "All right. No more talking about school. Can we talk about June? Are you going to play violin with the orchestra?"
"Eliso is too busy with Guys and Dolls right now to bring it up, but she will. I actually wanted to talk to you about May. There's something really important –"
Luigi came by to deliver their drinks and take their orders. The two minutes it took to order plates of pasta and salad felt like ages to Kurt, who just wanted to know what important thing was happening in May.
"So, May," Kurt prompted.
"Right." Blaine shifted his eyes around nervously. "We have a really important Spring tradition here. It's especially a huge deal when you're sixteen, because it's the first year we're allowed to go, and … Kurt, will you be my May Prince?"
Kurt opened and closed his mouth twice. "What's a May Prince?"
Kurt didn't know what was so embarrassing, but the way Blaine fidgeted and fiddled with his straw was too cute. He grinned toothily at his nervous boyfriend.
"It's, umm … really silly, actually. As part of the celebration, a Queen of the May is crowned. It's this really cheesy romantic tradition that started a long time ago for guys to call their dates a Princess of the May to make her feel special too. I'm asking you, Kurt, if you'll be my date for the May Day festival on Sunday."
Kurt's smile broadened, and he clapped his hands excitedly. "Of course I'll be your date, Blaine! But … Sunday. Oh my God. What's the dress code for a really important pagan-turned-secular holiday like May Day?"
Blaine couldn't keep the amusement out of his smile and voice. "Pastels." The smile dropped off Kurt's face. "I'm kidding, Kurt."
"We've been over the rules about jokes and fashion, haven't we?"
"Yes, we have. I apologize. The dress code is … prom casual? It's outside and all day, so usually light clothes. Bright colors, but earthy too. Everyone wears a lot of flowers."
"Hmm. And phallic symbols abound?"
"Naturally. Although we're not supposed to point them out, especially not while the girls are tying ribbons around the Maypole."
They couldn't suppress their laughter, somewhat childish as it was. Their food arrived a few minutes later, and they made plans for May Day while they ate. Kurt wanted to know what to expect and to run some outfit ideas by Blaine.
"You're not going to have time to do that before Sunday. We still have two performances of Sweeney Todd," Blaine said.
"Please. I've outfitted an entire cast in La Belle Époque period costumes in three weeks and designed half of my own wardrobe. I think I can manage a kilt in an afternoon. But we have to think about your outfit."
"I've already got it picked out. In case you said yes. It's very classic, with a May Day twist. You'll love it."
He surreptitiously tapped the deep purple-almost-black metal arms of his glasses. Kurt sucked in an excited breath and practically flailed on his side of the booth. Blaine took his hand over the table and rubbed his thumb across Kurt's palm.
"At the beginning of the school year, I was so excited for my junior prom," Kurt said, "but May Day is going to be so much better."