AN: this is part of a personal challenge/project filling all the prompts of past Kadam weeks, and posting one every day from March 28 to May 8th, 7 prompts per year 5 previous rounds (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 last two managed by vcg73) the first week of May 2-8 will present to you the offering for the Kadam Week 2021 you can search for more on tumblr
This is the offering to Kadam Week 2016 prompt 1: Library/Bookstore
The role was great, and Adam was ecstatic and grateful that he managed to land one so soon after graduation.
The musical was a rather interesting project as well, half homage half a musical biography of Jerome Robbins. The director wanted from him, a level of realism on the mannerisms of the famous director and choreographer, that would give anyone who knew the person behind the public image the illusion of seeing Jerome alive on stage.
The problem was such small things, quirks and habits that made the man, were not exactly the kind of accessible public knowledge, despite Robbins having still been alive less than twenty years ago.
So that's how Adam found himself surrounded by any tiny speck of information, newspaper articles, musical theatre history books he could think of.
As the clock inexorably ticked time away Adam's frustration grew. It wasn't even that he didn't like this part of his job, but it bothered him how long it was taking and how little time he had left to spend with Kurt.
Not that his boyfriend was making a fuss, Adam knew he was lucky, Kurt had a better understanding of what he was going through, it came with the desire of being part of the entertainment industry...
Still it was frustrating because when he was home, he had to study his lines, and this right here was just character study research...
Despite living together Adam was missed spending time with his boyfriend.
The librarian came and tapped on his table with an apologetic look on their face and the reference sheet they helped Adam prepare on the first day of his research. When Adam discovered, that it didn't matter if he was going to be back at opening time the next day, they couldn't leave everything out as Adam had arranged the material he was studying.
He sighed softly and added today's notes on the grid about what to keep, what to remove, what was marked as useful and to be used again on the next day.
Reaching home was like entering a safe warm nest, albeit an empty one… Kurt had prepared dinner and left it for him in the kitchen, ready to be warmed up, before he left for his shift at the diner, making it the fourth day in a row in which they barely saw each other.
It almost brought tears to Adam's eyes, it certainly was fuelling the nervous headache brewing in the back of his skull.
He forced himself to eat at least half of what Kurt left for him, and then settled to work on his lines waiting for Kurt's return. It wasn't like he would be able to fall asleep alone in their cold bed.
It took an additional three hours before Kurt returned home, only to find Adam dozing off on their couch.
Kurt could see that he was not the only one exhausted and this separation, being so close and yet barely seeing each other was becoming difficult for both of them.
Or Adam wouldn't have chosen to curl on the couch facing the door, rather than laying in their soft bed.
Kurt understood that maybe he wasn't going to be able to offer much help, but he had decided that his stubborn boyfriend would get if not his help with the research, at least his presence in the library.
And if Adam was so adamant about Kurt not being involved for whatever reason, then by all means he could take with him his own assignments to work on. As long as they did spend some time together, have the possibility of touching, or just seeing each other, even if it was in a very discrete and platonic way. Anything was going to be better than those few minutes in which they woke each other up, only to move tiredly from the couch to the bed.
Kurt leaned forward and pressed a loving kiss to Adam's temple and started a light massage on Adam's tense shoulders. "Come on darling, I'm home and I can't wait to be in bed with you"
Adam's mumbled sleepily "I've missed you love bed sounds lovely"
Kurt took Adam's script from the floor and placed it on top of their coffee table. Then put an arm around Adam's waist and guided them both to their bedroom. Glad when Adam crawled in bed without further help, allowing Kurt to undress quickly and join him.
As soon as he was under the blankets Adam snuggled closer holding onto Kurt, sighing in what sounded like tired relief as he nuzzled his nose against Kurt's hair.
That night they fell asleep in each other arms.
On the following morning, Kurt woke up to the smell of breakfast from their kitchen and the bed still warm. Just out of habit he pulled the blankets up to the pillows mostly to keep the warmth in should they unlikely decide to return to bed for another quick nap.
Kurt padded his way to the kitchen and rested his face on Adam's shoulder placing a sleepy kiss on Adam's skin sneaking one arm around Adam's chest.
"Morning dear, how's your time on the books going? Any chance that now that I've a long weekend free I could help you out?"
Adam turned and placed a kiss on the top of Kurt's head as he finished preparing breakfast.
He sighed dejectedly leaning back "It's not going as well as I hoped by now, and I do miss you, it's just… You shouldn't waste your time on something that's literally part of my job"
Kurt poked his pointing finger on Adam's waist as he nuzzled his face on the crock of Adam's neck "One it wouldn't be wasted time. Two you've assisted me with the research for my assignments before, I don't see the difference. And I've missed you too. I'm more than happy if instead of cuddling on our couch, with the tv going on, we do something productive. And if you really really really don't want me messing up your research method, then I'll just take my assignments with me. Get some work done on that with you, instead of here at home or at the study hall all alone."
That seemed to do the trick and Adam relaxed against Kurt's chest with a nod.
Kurt true to his world, took some of his papers that actually needed research with him, and for a couple of hours he concentrated on working on his own project.
At the beginning of the third hour, he saw Adam's frustration starting to get to him, so he took a break and whispered softly as to not disturb anyone "Luv can I help?"
Feeling the helplessness, Adam gave up on holding tight on the stubbornness of not wanting to be a burden, he opened the first page of his work notes binder and passed it to Kurt.
Kurt looked through it all, then he took a clean piece of paper from his own notepad and started by scribbling in the centre the name J. Robbins, circling it.
The second thing Kurt did was adding to one side of the paper the known professional facts and plays he worked on, connecting them with arrows.
On the opposite side of the paper some of the personal facts Adam had collected, tracing light lines if those were connected to some of the professional facts.
Once Kurt had a layout of the bigger picture he started circling the plays' names.
Adam watched the whole process in fascination until he noticed Kurt creating a new bubble, right under the centre of the paper, with a familiar name Lexington.
And from it, a list of names Adam recognised as members of the casts who worked for at least a season in the plays Robbins did.
Kurt continued scribbling, adding few asterisks next to each name.
Once he finished he moved to sit next to Adam and explained "Those are actors are in residence at the Lexington's Home and people who actually worked with Robbins, more asterisks mean better memories and usually a willingness to talk. Once you're done in here for the day we could swing there and see if they can help us out, if not by solving the problem completely at least point us in the right direction on what to search for..."
Adam took Kurt's face into his hands and kissed him gratefully on the lips, feeling almost ready to cry with relief.
Then he asked in a low voice, excitement creeping in his voice "When do you think we can go talk with them?"
Kurt smiled back and looked down at their table "I'd say as soon as we put everything away, we're ready to catch a bite on our way and then spend the afternoon there listening to stories and get some information. It has been a while since I was last there, so I will have to do some grovelling myself. But I'm pretty sure we could get something useful out of it."
Adam nodded overjoyed at the prospect, things were finally looking up.